Marlene Dietrich Marlene Dietrich Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich (, ; 27 December 1901 – 6 May 1992) was a German actress and singer who held both German and American citizenship. Throughout her long career, which spanned from the 1910s to the 1980s, she maintained popularity by continually reinventing herself. In 1920s Berlin, Dietrich acted on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola-Lola in "The Blue Angel" (1930) brought her international fame and a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in Hollywood films such as "Morocco" (1930), "Shanghai Express" (1932), and "Desire" (1936). She successfully traded on her glamorous persona
Marlene Dietrich Crawford, Mae West, Katharine Hepburn, Norma Shearer, Dolores del Río and Fred Astaire among others. While she was in London, officials of the Nazi Party approached Dietrich and offered her lucrative contracts, should she agree to return to Germany as a foremost film star in the Third Reich. She refused their offers and applied for US citizenship in 1937. She returned to Paramount to make "Angel" (1937), another romantic comedy directed by Ernst Lubitsch; the film was poorly received, leading Paramount to buy out the remainder of Dietrich's contract. In 1939, with encouragement from Josef von Sternberg, she accepted producer