Marlene Dietrich

In 1994 her memoralilia were sold to the Stiftung Deutsche Kinemathek (after US insitutions showed no interest) where it became the core of the FilmMuseum Berlin in the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz, Berlin. (New York Magazine). de:Friedenau Cemetery. The most striking performance - in large part non-performance - comes from the late Andrea Feldman as the flat-voiced, freaked-out daughter, a mass of psychotic confusion, infantile and heart-breaking. Her body, covered with an American flag, was then returned to Berlin where she was interred in the Städtischen Friedhof III, Berlin-Schöneberg, Stubenrauchstraße 43-45. She was noted for her exhibitionist nature and heavy dependence on drugs, particularly amphetamines. A service was conducted at La Madeline in Paris before 3,500 mourners and a crowd of well-wishers outside. Feldman’s suicide preceded the release of Heat, in which she had a significant role, by only three weeks.

Dietrich died peacefully at the age of 90 in Paris, of general old-age. Urban legend often mis-attributes the location of Feldman’s suicide to the Hotel Chelsea. It is true that she quipped that she would return only when one of her Jewish friends (possibly Max Reinhardt) could accompany her. Feldman was holding a can of Coke in one hand and a rosary in the other when she jumped from the fourteenth floor of 51 Fifth Avenue & 12th St, NYC. Despite all of this, she was reportedly offered a king's ransom to return to Germany, due to her immense popularity as well as Hitler's ardour, which she declined. In August of 1972, Andrea summoned several ex-boyfriends, including poet Jim Carroll, to the home of her parents so that they would be witness to her 'final starring role'; her suicide. When Maria gave birth to a son in 1948, Dietrich was dubbed "the world's most glamorous grandmother." Although they never married, the great love of her life was the French actor and military hero, Jean Gabin. Feldman was heavily involved in the Exploding Plastic Inevitable shows curated by Andy Warhol at which she would perform her famous whip-dance.

13, 1924. A native New Yorker, she starred in several of Warhol’s underground movies before committing suicide in 1972. Her only child, Maria, was born on Dec. Andrea Feldman (also known as Andrea ‘Whips’ Feldman) (1948- 8 August 1972) was an actor and Warhol superstar. She married once, to director's assistant (and later director at Paramount Pictures, France) Rudolf Sieber. Heat (1972). Unlike her professional celebrity, which was carefully crafted and maintained, Dietrich's personal life was kept out of public view. Trash (1970).

Her public image and some of her movies included strong sexual undertones, including bisexuality. Accordingly, it is no surprise that she had affairs with women (Mercedes de Acosta was among her lesbian lovers) as well as men. Four Stars (1967) aka 24 Hour Movie. Dietrich was a fashion icon to the top designers as well as a screen icon whom later stars would follow. She is also famous for having recorded Lili Marleen during World War II, a curious example of a song transcending the hatreds of war. Dietrich became an American citizen in 1937, raised a record number of War Bonds and entertained American troops during the Second World War.

Her singing helped here too, as she recorded a number of anti-Nazi records in German for the OSS. She sang for the Allied troops on the front lines in Algiers, Fance and into Germany with Generals Gavin & Patton. She was a staunch anti-Nazi who despised Germany's anti-semitic policies of the time. Dietrich was known to have a strong set of political convictions and a mind to speak them.

Madeline Kahn did the same in the Mel Brooks film "Blazing Saddles". Her distinctive voice was later satirized, by Lotte Lenya, in the song Lieder by cult British trio Fascinating Aïda. She spent the last twelve years bed-ridden, in seclusion in her apartment in Paris. Her show business career largely ended, however, in 1974, when she broke her leg during a stage performance.

Spectacular costumes (by Jean Louis) and careful stage lighting helped to preserve Dietrich's glamorous image well into old age. His arrangements helped to disguise Dietrich's limited vocal range and allowed her to perform her songs to maximum dramatic effect. Until the mid-1960s her musical director was pop composer Burt Bacharach. Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day.

From the 1950s to the mid-1970s Dietrich toured internationally as a successful cabaret performer. Following a slowdown in her film career, she made a number of records first for Decca, Elektrola, EMI, and for Columbia. Dietrich sang in several of her films (most famously in von Sternberg's The Blue Angel, in which she sings "Falling In Love Again"), having made records in Germany in the 1920s. She gradually broadened her repertoire in roles such as Destry Rides Again, A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil, and Judgment at Nuremberg.

Her most lasting contribution to film history was as the star in several films directed by Josef von Sternberg in the early 1930s, such as The Scarlet Empress and Shanghai Express, in which she played "femme fatales". After playing in only German movies at first, she got her first role in the 1st European talking picture, The Blue Angel(1930; directed by Joseph von Sternberg) and then moved to Hollywood to make Morocco (for which she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress). Born in Schöneberg, Berlin, Dietrich played the violin before joining an acting school in 1921, making her film debut the following year. Marie Magdalene "Marlene" Dietrich (December 27, 1901 - May 6, 1992) was a German actress and singer.