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 in the German city of Belsen throughout the war years, running a cinema frequented by Nazi officers and officials who oversaw the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Dietrich's mother remained in Berlin during the war; her husband moved to a ranch in the San Fernando Valley of California. Dietrich vouched on behalf of her sister and her sister's husband, sheltering them from possible prosecution as Nazi collaborators. Dietrich would later omit the existence of her sister and her sister's son from all accounts of her life, completely disowning them and claiming to be an only child. Dietrich received the Medal of Freedom