Biography of Marlene Dietrich

Blue Angel

December 27, 1901
May 6, 1992
Marlene Dietrich with his charm and charisma only impersonated for a long time those ideals of style, elegance and self control so in vogue in the years ' 30: a perfection and absolutely original for its time, a fascination that appealed to both the male and female sensitivity, Marlene a androgynous patina that, after you, would have been covered by a number of other artists. Born on December 27, 1901 in Schoeneberg, in Germany, Marie Magdalene Dietrich was the daughter of a jeweler and a police officer who died prematurely. His mother remarried, but her second husband fell on the eastern front. Perhaps that is why, to a frantic search for the father figure that Marlene consumed many loves with men with a strong personality.
In his "game" include names like Josef von Sternberg, Billy Wilder, Orson Welles, Erich Maria Remarque, Gary Cooper, Jean Gabin and Burt Lancaster. Starting from 20 began studying acting and appearing in some film productions; in 1923 she married Rudolf Sieber that legally would remain her only husband, although in fact they parted soon enough, while remaining on good terms. The following year she gave birth to her first and only child, Maria. In 1929 the Jewish-Austrian Director Josef von Sternberg comes from Hollywood to make a movie based on the figure of professor Unrat, a character in the fruit of the literary invention of Heinrich Mann. Marlene Dietrich kidnaps immediately the attention of Director and collaboration a masterpiece: "the Blue Angel" movie in which Marlene plays a nightclub singer in what was one of the first German sound film.
With this debut that immortalized immediately between the myths of cinema, began a long and glorious career. Marlene followed Sternberg in New York and Hollywood, starring in six films that helped make the actress a living legend. Among them: "Morocco," in which Marlene appears dressed in a black tailcoat and a tuba, "Dishonored", which embodies the part of an Austrian spy during World War I. You went solo consolidating "character Dietrich, femme fatale, smart and independent, with a strong sexy and an equally strong gender ambivalence. "Shanghai express", 1932, confirmed even more in this role. Many other movies like "blonde Venus", "Song of songs", "The Scarlet Empress", "the devil is a woman".
After the collaboration with Sternberg, the actress played a part in a comedy directed by Frank Borzage, "desire", 1936 film which sees it as a charming rogue of jewelry making capitulate at his feet a handsome Gary Cooper. Later he returned to face the most melancholy like that of "Angel", a film by Ernst Lubitsch in which she played Lady Mary Barker, a woman who turns out to have cheated on her husband with one of his oldest friends. The film was a great success and this authorises some talk of decline. Yet back in the spotlight in a new genre of Marlene, a western in which he impersonates a saloon singer ("Game of chance").
It was 1939, when former Blue Angel becomes an American citizen. Always been hostile to Nazism, Marlene Dietrich decided to actively supporting American troops in Africa and Italy, although he felt still very attached to his homeland. It's time to "Lily Marlene", the song that would have accompanied for the rest of his life. After the war he worked with several filmmakers: by George Lacombe in "Martin Roumagnac" by Billy Wilder in "international scandal" movie in which Marlene, in a game of mirrors realistic flavor plays a singer in Nazi Berlin in ruins; and Alfred Hitchcock's "stage fright" and "touch of evil" by Orson Welles.
But there were only films for Marlene Dietrich that, from a certain moment, he began to perform live on stage, not to mention the concerts, including memorable was that in Rio in 1959. Despite its wealth of artistic work, though, everyone will remember always especially as Lola de "the Blue Angel". Marlene Dietrich, today absolute icon of the XXth century, passed away on May 6, 1992 at the age of 90 years.
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.