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 Paramount to make her first color film "The Garden of Allah" (1936) for independent producer David O. Selznick, for which she received $200,000, and to Britain for Alexander Korda's production, "Knight Without Armour" (1937), at a salary of $450,000, which made her one of the best paid film stars. While both films performed respectably at the box office, her vehicles were costly to produce and her public popularity had declined. By this time, Dietrich placed 126th in box office rankings, and American film exhibitors proclaimed her "box office poison" in May 1938, a distinction she shared with Greta Garbo, Joan