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 del Río (whom Dietrich considered the most beautiful woman in Hollywood). The French singer Edith Piaf was also one of Dietrich's closest friends during her stay in Paris in the 1950s, and there were always rumors of something more than friendship between them. Greta Garbo has been commonly regarded as Dietrich's greatest film rival, but there is also a rumor of an affair between them. This rumor had its highlight in 2000 when writer Diana McLellan released her book "The Girls: Sappho goes to Hollywood". The author wrote that, in her research, she found proof of a never-before-reported affair between