Marlene dietrich biography actress

A big hit, the film helped make Dietrich a star in the United States. She played Amy Jolly, a lounge singer, who gets entangled in a love triangle with a member of the Foreign Legion Cooper and a wealthy playboy Adolphe Menjou. For her work on the film, Dietrich received her one and only Academy Award nomination. Continuing to play the femme fatale, Dietrich challenged accepted notions of feminity.

She often wore pants and more masculine fashions on- and off-screen, which added to her unique allure and created new trends. Dietrich made several more films with von Sternberg, including DishonoredShanghai Express and The Scarlet Empressin which she played the famed member of Russian royalty, Catherine the Great. Their last film together was The Devil Is a Woman —reportedly her personal favorite film.

Considered by many to her most ultimate portrayal of a vamp, Dietrich played a cold-hearted temptress who captivates several men during the Spanish revolution.

Marlene dietrich biography actress

Dietrich later softened her image somewhat by taking on lighter fare. The two were said to have had a romantic relationship, which later turned into a strong friendship. In her personal life, Dietrich was a strong opponent of the Nazi government in Germany. She had been asked to return to Germany by people associated with Adolf Hitler in the late s to marlene dietrich biography actress films there, but she turned them down.

As a result, her films were banned in her native land. She made her new country her official home by becoming a U. During World War II, Dietrich traveled extensively to entertain the allied troops, singing such songs as "Lili Marlene" and others that would later become staples in her cabaret act. She was and continues to be admired, idolised and imitated — yet remains an enigmatic myth.

Marie Magdalene Dietrich is born into a respectable middle-class family in Berlin on 27 December Her father is a police lieutenant and her mother is from an affluent family of jewellers. As a teenager, Marlene - as she soon takes to calling herself - discovers music, takes violin lessons and is interested in theatre and film. At the start of the s, Marlene Dietrich takes her first steps on stage and in front of the camera.

The vibrant metropolis of Berlin offers her the ideal environment to do this. The same year she accepts an invitation to move to Hollywood. We use YouTube to embed content that may collect data about your activity. Please review the details and accept the service to see this content. Piwik is not available or is blocked. Fashion Industry Broadcast, p.

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Archived from the original on 25 April Movie Stars Do the Dumbest Things. Toronto Star. Archived from the original on 18 September Retrieved 12 December The latter was notably present at Piaf's wedding to singer Jacques Pills, but the women's relationship began in the s as Piaf was first trying to break into American entertainment and Dietrich took the sparrow under her wing, so to speak.

Errol Flynn: The Life and Career. Vanity Fair. March Retrieved 26 December Archived from the original on 1 December Retrieved 27 September The Guardian. Retrieved 11 September Retrieved 30 January Women's Wear Daily. Dictionary of Minor Planet Names. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Archived from the original on 22 December Archived from the original on 28 May University of Michigan Press.

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Further reading [ edit ]. External links [ edit ]. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marlene Dietrich. Wikiquote has quotations related to Marlene Dietrich. Marlene Dietrich. An Evening with Marlene Dietrich Discography Filmography Marlene Marlene Special Tony Award. Wharton Al Hirschfeld Jacobs Edward E. Edward Hambleton Wolfe Authority control databases.

Toggle the table of contents. She, in turn, was willing to trust him and follow his sometimes imperious direction in a way that a number of other performers resisted. A crucial part of the overall effect was created by von Sternberg's exceptional skill in lighting and photographing Dietrich to optimum effect—the use of light and shadow, including the impact of light passed through a veil or slatted blinds as for example in Shanghai Express —which, when combined with scrupulous attention to all aspects of set design and costumes, make this series of films among the most visually stylish in cinema history.

Critics still debate vigorously how much of the credit belonged to von Sternberg and how much to Dietrich, but most would agree that neither consistently reached such heights again after Paramount fired von Sternberg and the two ceased to work together. Without von Sternberg, Dietrich, bywas being labeled "box office poison" after her Korda film, Knight Without Armour, proved an expensive flop.

Inhowever, her stardom was revived when she played the cowboy saloon girl Frenchie in the light-hearted western Destry Rides Again opposite James Stewart. The movie also introduced another favorite song, "See what the boys in the back room will have. While she arguably never fully regained her former screen glory, she continued performing in the movies, including appearances for such distinguished directors as Billy WilderAlfred Hitchcockand Orson Wellesin successful films that included A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil, Judgment at Nuremberg, and Stage Fright.

Inwhile her film career stalled in Hollywood, she made a film in London for producer Alexander Korda. In later interviews, she reported that, while in London to film Knight Without Armourshe was approached by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but turned them down flat. Dietrich became an American citizen in Inthe U. Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them.

Like many Weimar era German entertainers, she was a staunch anti-Nazi who despised anti-Semitism. Gavin and George S. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, aus Anstand —"it was the decent thing to do. Dietrich was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the U.

Government for her war work. Dietrich had a smoky and world-weary singing voice which she used to great effect in many of her films, on records, and later during her world-wide concert tours. Kenneth Tynan called her voice her "third dimension. This song, with its lesbian overtones, was a hit in Berlin in Inshe recorded her version of "Lili Marleen.

Dietrich signed with Columbia Records in the s, with Mitch Miller as her producer. She also recorded several duets with Rosemary Clooney; these tapped into a younger market and charted. During the s, Dietrich recorded several albums and many singles, mostly with Burt Bacharach at the helm of the orchestra. Inher performance of the title track from her last film, Just a Gigolo, was issued as a single.

She made her last recordings from her Paris apartment in Spoken introductions to songs for a nostalgia album by Udo Lindenberg. Asked by Maximillian Schell in his documentary Marlene which of her own recordings were her favorites, she replied that she thought Marlene Singt Berlin-Berlinan album featuring her singing old Berlin schlager popular songswas her best recorded work.

From the early s until the mids, Dietrich worked almost exclusively as a highly-paid cabaret artist, performing live in large theaters in major cities world-wide. The show was short, consisting only of a few songs associated with her. Her daring sheer costumes, designed by Jean Louis, attracted a lot of publicity and attention.