biography
| name: |
Dietrich, Marlene
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| |
originally Maria Magdalene von Losch
|
pronunciation:
[deetrikh]
| sex:
| female
|
| lived:
| (1904–92)
|
| biography:
| Film actress and singer, born in Berlin, Germany. Abandoning an early ambition to be a violinist, she became a chorus girl, then studied acting, and by 1923 had launched her career in German films. She gained international attention in The Blue Angel (1930) and moved to Hollywood with its director, Josef von Sternberg, who starred her in six films that enforced her persona of enigmatic sexuality. Eventually she moved on to a variety of admired roles in dramas and comedies. Resisting requests by the Nazis to return to Germany, she became a US citizen in 1939 and during World War 2 made extensive tours, often into combat zones, to entertain Allied troops. After the war, she began a new career as a singer, gaining a new following with her husky, sophisticated renditions. Linked romantically with many men, but married only once (to Rudolf Sieber in 1924), she spent her last years in Paris. |
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