Marlene Dietrich filmography film appearance was as herself in the 1984 documentary, "Marlene". In 1999, the American Film Institute named Dietrich as the ninth-greatest female star of classic Hollywood cinema. </div style="font-size: 95%"> </div style="font-size: 95%"> </div style="font-size: 95%"> Complete list of television appearances (excluding news footage): Marlene Dietrich filmography Marlene Dietrich was a German-American actress. In the 1920s, she acted on the Berlin stage and in silent films, making her film debut in 1922. She was propelled to international fame by director Josef von Sternberg, who cast her as Lola-Lola in "The Blue Angel" (1930). The film's commercial success brought her a
Marlene Dietrich platonic love and whom she considered a genius. She also had an affair with Cuban-American writer Mercedes de Acosta, who claimed to be Greta Garbo's lover. "Sewing circle" was a phrase used by Dietrich to describe the underground, closeted lesbian and bisexual film actresses and their relationships in Hollywood. In the supposed "Marlene's Sewing Circle" are mentioned the names of other close friends such as Ann Warner (the wife of Jack L. Warner, one of the owners of the Warner studios), Lili Damita (an old friend of Marlene's from Berlin and the wife of Errol Flynn), Claudette Colbert, and Dolores