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Marlene Dietrich left behind a legacy of film and stage performances that continue to inspire and captivate audiences to this day. Marlene Dietrich will always be remembered as one of the greatest icons of Hollywood cinema.
She was admired for her humanitarian efforts and her commitment to making a positive impact during times of conflict.
Marlene Dietrich’s Biography
Marie Magdalene Dietrich, known famously as Marlene Dietrich, was a German and American actress and singer who rose to international fame during the 1920s to the 1980s.
She was born on December 27, 1901, in Berlin, Germany, and became one of Hollywood’s most recognisable figures.
Dietrich’s career began in Berlin in the 1920s, where she appeared on stage and in silent films. Her role as Lola-Lola in Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel in 1930 earned her international recognition and a contract with Paramount Pictures.
She went on to star in a number of Hollywood films, including Morocco (1930), Dishonoured (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus (all 1932), The Scarlet Empress (1934), The Devil Is a Woman (1935), Desire (1936), and Destry Rides Again (1939). Her beautiful persona and exotic appearance helped her become one of the highest-paid actresses of her era.
During WWII, Dietrich actively supported humanitarian operations by hosting German and French exiles, offering financial assistance, and lobbying for their American citizenship.
She was well-known for her efforts to boost morale on the front lines, for which she received awards from the United States, France, Belgium, and Israel.
Dietrich had important postwar appearances in films such as Billy Wilder’s A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock’s Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer’s Judgement at Nuremberg (1961).
However, from the 1950s until the 1970s, she was largely focused on her profession as a live show performer, touring the world and mesmerising audiences with her beautiful performances.
Dietrich’s celebrity stretched well beyond the cinema. The American Film Institute named her the seventh greatest female screen legend of classic Hollywood cinema in 1999.
Marlene Dietrich died at the age of 90 on May 6, 1992. She died of renal failure in Paris. On May 14, 1992, her burial was held in the Roman Catholic church of La Madeleine in Paris.
Marlene Dietrich’s Cause Of Death
Marlene Dietrich’s cause of death is reported to have been kidney failure which she had leading to her demise at the age of 90 years old.