Marlene Dietrich was born Maria Magdalene Dietrich in Schoneberg, Germany on December 27, 1901. The younger of two daughters of a policeman, she was raised in Berlin. After her father's 1907 death, her mother remarried but that union proved short-lived; Dietrich's stepfather died of wounds suffered fighting in WWI.
As a child, Dietrich showed promise as a violinist, but a wrist injury derailed that career. Instead, she decided to pursue a career as an actress. While she failed to earn a place at Max Reinhardt's school on her first try, Dietrich eventually was accepted and was acting on stage in Berlin by 1922. That same year, the actress made her first film, "So Sind die Manner" and then landed her first lead, opposite William Dieterle in his directorial debut, "Der Mensche am Wege" (1923). She continued to appear in films, including the Alexander Korda-directed "Eine DuBarry von Heute" and "Madame Wunscht keine Kinder" (both 1926). While she had become established as the "toast of Berlin" with her stage performances that one breakthrough role seemingly eluded her until she caught the eye of Josef von Sternberg.
The Austrian-born von Sternberg had already become established in Hollywood when he returned to Germany at the suggestion of Emil Jannings to make the country's first sound feature, "Der Blaue Engel/The Blue Angel" in 1929. Casting the lead role of the sexy cabaret star Lola Lola who could drive men to the most extreme humiliations in the name of love proved a challenge for the director, until he met Dietrich. If ever an actress and a role were right for one another, it was this, although her screen test failed to impress those working for the director who dismissed her as commonplace. But with the cameras rolling, there was nothing common about Dietrich. Sternberg had recognized her special qualities and in their multiple film collaboration, he helped to fashion the screen persona that most recall.
"Die Blaue Engel" was a success and Paramount wanted Dietrich under contract. By the spring of 1930, she had sailed to NYC and soon after her arrival in Hollywood, Sternberg shot a short trailer that was used to introduce her to American audiences. Their first US film was an English-language remake of "The Blue Angel" (1930) but its release was held until after their second collaboration, "Morocco" (also 1930), was already in theaters. In perhaps the boldest debut, Dietrich was cast as cabaret singer Amy Jolly, an independent woman who dressed as a man, locked lips with a woman and referred to her leading man (Gary Cooper) as her "girlfriend". Showcasing the actress' smoldering charisma and the director's obvious lust for her, "Morocco" was a hit for the studio, netting some $2 million in revenues. Dietrich was catapulted to stardom and earned her only Academy Award nomination for her lead role in the film.
Over the next five years, director and star worked together on what may be one of the most intriguing collaborations ever. Each of their films were manufactured in the studio, despite being set in foreign lands. Sternberg, though, used light and shadow to paint visual poetry and conjure an image of a leading lady that was at once adoring and scathing. Whether it was playing a spy dressed in black leather in "Dishonored" (1931) or the glamorous lady of the evening in "Shanghai Express" (1932) or Russian monarch Catherine the Great in "The Scarlett Empress" (1934), Dietrich projected an ineffable allure. Beginning with 1932's "Blonde Venus", though, film audiences were not as taken with the Teutonic beauty. By the mid-30s, when Sternberg proclaimed he had taken her as far as he could in her career and ended their partnership, her position in the industry was still on the rise.
The delightful Ernst Lubitsch-directed romantic comedy "Desire" (1936) proved a hit solidifying her status as the highest-paid actress in Hollywood. Dietrich then segued to her first Technicolor movie, "The Garden of Allah" (1936), but her next few films failed to earn money and by 1938, she was listed along with Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Katharine Hepburn and Greta Garbo as "box office poison" and Paramount bought out the remainder of her contract. Defying the pundits, though, Dietrich roared back with one of her best performances as the saloon entertainer Frenchy crowing "See What the Boys in the Back Room Will Have" in "Destry Rides Again" (1939). Once again on top, she was put under contract by Universal, but most of her films (e.g., "The Flame of New Orleans" 1941; "Pittsburgh" 1942) there were lackluster. Directors seemingly did not know how to capture her special allure and Dietrich reportedly didn't help matters by constantly referring to how Sternberg would have shot a scene. By the time that the USA entered WWII, Dietrich had considered retirement -- at least from the cinema.
Instead of quitting show business all together, the still attractive fortysomething Dietrich embarked on a USO concert tour of Europe and North Africa, entertaining American G.I.s. Following the war, it was announced she would team with Jean Gabin under the direction of Marcel Carne in "Les Portes de la nuit", but both actors were disappointed with their roles and instead chose to co-star in the unspectacular "Martin Roumagnac" (1946). She was amusing as a gypsy in "Golden Earrings" (also 1946) but really shown in an underappreciated performance as a wisecracking and cynical ex-Nazi chanteuse in the Billy Wilder-directed comedy "A Foreign Affair" (1948).
Although she was still a star, Dietrich was now known as "the world's most glamorous grandmother" after her daughter Maria Riva gave birth. Hollywood has never quite known what to do with actresses as they age, particularly those whose careers were based on their looks. Unlike her former rival Garbo (who retired in 1941), Dietrich continued to work, despite her reputation for difficulty. Still commanding hefty paychecks, she appeared in a variety of projects, most notably "Stage Fright" (1950), directed by Alfred Hitchcock and "Rancho Notorious" (1952), helmed by Fritz Lang. Once again, when Tinsel Town failed to provide her with work, Dietrich turned to the concert stage, spending four years in the mid-50s on tour in venues as diverse as Las Vegas hotels and London nightclubs.
She was one of the many name performers who made a cameo appearance in the Oscar-winning Best Picture "Around the World in 80 Days" (1956), but her additional film work was sporadic, if worthwhile. After headlining the unimpressive "The Monte Carlo Story" (1957), Dietrich offered a nice turn as the stylish title character in "Witness for the Prosecution" (also 1957), directed by Billy Wilder. In 1958, she was terrific as the fortune-telling brothel madam who advises Orson Welles' cop Quinlan that "your future is all used up" in "Touch of Evil". Stanley Kramer tapped her to portray the widow of a German officer in the superb courtroom drama "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961). Except for a cameo appearance as herself in "Paris When It Sizzles" (1964), the actress did not grace the screen again until her final movie, 1978's lame romance "Just a Gigolo".
For much of the 1960s and 70s, Dietrich headlined concert performances around the world (playing everywhere from Moscow to Jerusalem). She enjoyed a spectacular run on Broadway in 1967 (earning a Special Tony Award) that was later recreated for the 1973 CBS TV special "Marlene Dietrich: I Wish You Love". There were rumors that she had been battling alcoholism and that she often appeared on stage after drinking heavily. While performing one of her concerts in Sydney, Australia in 1975, Dietrich fell off the stage and broke her leg, forcing her retirement from stage performing. In 1984, Maximilian Schell made the fascinating documentary "Marlene", in which Dietrich refused to be photographed, although she consented to recorded interviews. By that time, she was living in virtual seclusion in the Paris apartment where she died on May 6, 1992 at the age of 90.