Marlene Dietrich

Marlene Dietrich grew up in Berlin, the daughter of a police officer. She wanted to be a violinist, but a hand injury ended that dream, and she turned to the stage and film. In the Berlin of the 1920s she moved in the cabarets and clubs, where cross-dressing and lesbian life were part of the scene.

As the singer Lola Lola in “The Blue Angel” (1930) she became an international star. Hollywood followed: in “Morocco” (1930) she appeared in a top hat and tuxedo and kissed a woman on the lips – one of the most famous moments of early sound film. With the director Josef von Sternberg she made six more films, and her trousers and androgynous style became her trademark.

She refused offers from the Nazis to return to Germany, became an American citizen in 1939 and entertained Allied troops at the front during the Second World War. Later she had a second career as a singer of songs such as “Lili Marleen”.

She was married to Rudolf Sieber for over fifty years, but they lived largely separate lives. She had numerous affairs with men and women, among them the writer Mercedes de Acosta. She spent her last years in seclusion in Paris, where she died in 1992, aged 90. She is buried in Berlin.