Born in 1901 in Berlin as Maria Magdalene von Losch, Marlene Dietrich's film career began in the German cinema. She hit stardom in Josef von Sternberg's 1930 'The Blue Angel', where she became an instant screen sex goddess. Hollywood films followed, with von Sternberg directing such varied films as Morocco (1930), Blond Venus (1932), and The Devil is a Woman (1935).As her career progressed Dietrich's roles continued to show an wide range, a saloon singer in the comedy Destry Rides Again (1939), a hard up aristocrat in A Foreign Affair (1948), an outlaw in Rancho Notorious (1952) and a tough madam in Touch of Evil (1958). As a prominant anti-Nazi, Dietrich won a new celebrity during World War II with her front-line shows for U.S. troops. Ever the hard-working professional, in the 1950s she began touring with a popular cabaret act, which was to continue to the mid 1970s. After retiring from showbusiness, Dietrich lived out the remaining years of her life reclusively in Paris. Her last brush with the film industry being the 1986 documentary Marlene, where she refused to be filmed, but contributed a voice-over. Marlene Dietrich died May 6, 1992.
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