Marlene Dietrich

1901 – 1992 · died at about 91^[1][2]

Film & Entertainment

Fun Facts About Marlene Dietrich

• Marlene Dietrich entertained Allied troops with a musical saw and a "mindreading" act that her friend Orson Welles had taught her for his Mercury Wonder Show.^[1][3][4]
• Dietrich invented her own first name: at about age 11 she combined her first two names, Marie Magdalene, into "Marlene."^[1]
• Dietrich dreamed of being a concert violinist until a wrist injury. Her first job was playing violin in a pit orchestra for silent films in Berlin, and she was fired after four weeks.^[1]
• Dietrich said Nazi Party officials offered her lucrative contracts to return as a top film star in Germany. She refused and applied for U.S. citizenship in 1937.^[1]
• Dietrich was reported to have sold more war bonds than any other star. Billy Wilder later said she was at the front lines more than Dwight Eisenhower.^[1][5][6]
• A Shanghai Express production still of Dietrich inspired the cover of Queen's album Queen II, an image later used in the "Bohemian Rhapsody" video.^[1]
• Marlene Dietrich was alive at the same time as Taylor Swift — their lives overlapped for 3 years (1989–1992).^[1][2][7][8]
• Marlene Dietrich shares a birthday with Louis Pasteur: both were born on December 27.^{[1][2][9][10]}

Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1920s Berlin, she performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola Lola in Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in many Hollywood films, including six roles directed by Sternberg: Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress (1934), and The Devil Is a Woman (1935). Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she delivered notable performances in several post-war films, including Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), she spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.^[1]

Contemporaries

Bob Hope

89 yr overlap

Hirohito

88 yr overlap

Georgia O'Keeffe

85 yr overlap

Jorge Luis Borges

85 yr overlap

Salvador Dalí

85 yr overlap

Dorothy Hodgkin

82 yr overlap

Mother Teresa

82 yr overlap

Akira Kurosawa

82 yr overlap

Jacques Cousteau

82 yr overlap

Ronald Reagan

81 yr overlap

Naguib Mahfouz

81 yr overlap

Alfred Hitchcock

79 yr overlap

Their World

Questions About Marlene Dietrich

When was Marlene Dietrich born?

Marlene Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901, and died on May 6, 1992.

How old was Marlene Dietrich at death?

Marlene Dietrich was born on December 27, 1901, and died on May 6, 1992, at age 90.

What was Marlene Dietrich known for?

Marlene Dietrich was known for: German-American film star and singer. Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich was a German and American actress and singer whose career spanned nearly seven decades. In 1920s Berlin, she performed on the stage and in silent films. Her performance as Lola Lola in Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel (1930) brought her international acclaim and a contract with Paramount Pictures. Dietrich starred in many Hollywood films, including six roles directed by Sternberg: Morocco (1930), Dishonored (1931), Shanghai Express and Blonde Venus, The Scarlet Empress (1934), and The Devil Is a Woman (1935). Throughout World War II, she was a high-profile entertainer in the United States. Although she delivered notable performances in several post-war films, including Billy Wilder's A Foreign Affair (1948), Alfred Hitchcock's Stage Fright (1950), Billy Wilder's Witness for the Prosecution (1957), Orson Welles's Touch of Evil (1958), and Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961), she spent most of the 1950s to the 1970s touring the world as a marquee live-show performer.

Who was alive at the same time as Marlene Dietrich?

Marlene Dietrich's closest contemporary was Bob Hope. Their lives overlapped for 89 years.