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She was born Marie Magdalene Dietrich in Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany to Louis Erich Otto Dietrich and Wilhelmina Elisabeth Josephine Dietrich (nee Felsing) on December 27, 1901. Nicknamed "Lena" within the family, she contracted her two first names to form her more well-known name, Marlene, when she was still a teenager.
Dietrich studied the violin before starting work as a chorus girl and actress for Max Reinhardt in theatre productions in Berlin and Vienna throughout the 1920s.
She made her film debut in 1923. In 1929, she got the role of Lola-Lola in UFA's production, The Blue Angel (1930). The film was the first German sound film, was directed by Josef von Sternberg and is noted for introducing Dietrich's signature song "Falling in Love Again".
 She then moved to Hollywood on contract to Paramount to make Morocco, for which she received her only Oscar nomination. Paramount tried to shape her as the studio's German answer to MGM's Swedish sensation Greta Garbo. Her most lasting contribution to film history was as the star in several films directed by von Sternberg in the pre-Code early 1930s, such as The Scarlet Empress and Shanghai Express, in which she played femmes fatales. By 1939 Dietrich was labelled "box office poison". Her 1937 Korda film Knight Without Armour had been an expensive flop. However, in 1939 her stardom was revived when she played against type as a cowboy saloon girl in the western Destry Rides Again with James Stewart. She played a similar role in 1942 with John Wayne in The Spoilers.
While she never regained her former popularity, she continued performing in films like A Foreign Affair, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil and Judgment at Nuremberg.
Unlike her professional celebrity, which was carefully crafted and maintained, Dietrich's personal life was kept out of public view. She married once, to director's assistant Rudolf Sieber, a Roman Catholic who later became a director at Paramount Pictures in France.
Her only child, Maria Elisabeth Sieber, was born in Berlin on December 13, 1924. She would later become an actress, primarily working in television, as Maria Riva. When Maria gave birth to a son in 1948, Dietrich was dubbed "the world's most glamorous grandmother". The great love of the actress's life, however, was the French actor and military hero Jean Gabin. Their relationship ended in the mid-1940s. During the 1950s, she had relationships with Edward R. Murrow, Yul Brynner, Frank Sinatra and professional bowler Don Carter. She remained close to her husband, but he lived on a chicken farm in California with his unstable longterm mistress, Tamara Matul.
In 1937, while her film career stalled in Hollywood, she made a film in London for producer Alexander Korda. In later interviews, she claimed that while in London to film Knight Without Armour (1937) she was approached by representatives of the Nazi Party to return to Germany, but turned them down flat. Dietrich became an American citizen in 1939.
In 1941 the U.S. entered the Second World War and Dietrich became one of the first celebrities to raise war bonds. She entertained troops on the front lines in a USO revue that included future TV pioneer Danny Thomas as her opening act. Dietrich was known to have strong political convictions and the mind to speak them. Like many Weimar era German entertainers, she was a staunch anti-Nazi who despised anti-Semitism.
She recorded a number of anti-Nazi records in German for the OSS, including "Lili Marleen". She also played the musical saw to entertain troops. She sang for the Allied troops on the front lines in Algiers, France and into Germany with Generals James M. Gavin and George S. Patton. When asked why she had done this, in spite of the obvious danger of being within a few kilometers of German lines, she replied, "aus Anstand" – "it was the decent thing to do".
Dietrich was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the US Government for her war work. She was also made a chevalier (later commandeur) of the Légion d'Honneur by the French government.
Dietrich had a smoky and world-weary singing voice which she used to great effect in many of her films, on records and later during her world-wide concert tours. Kenneth Tynan called her voice her “third dimension”; Hemingway thought that “if she had nothing more than her voice, she could break your heart with it”.
Dietrich’s recording career spanned over half a century. Prior to international stardom, she recorded a duet, “Wenn die Beste Freundin”, with Margo Lion. This song was a hit in Berlin in 1928.
In 1930, she recorded English and German-language selections from her film, Der Blaue Engel, for Electrola in Berlin. It was at this time that she recorded Frederich Hollaender’s "Falling in Love Again" for the first time: it would become her theme song, to be sung in thousands of concerts and forever identified with her.
A 1933 Parisian recording session for Polydor produced several classic tracks, including Franz Waxman’s “Allein in Einer Grossen Stadt”. She recorded “The Boys in the Back Room” for Decca in 1939. In 1945, she recorded her version of "Lili Marleen".
Dietrich signed with Columbia Records in the 1950s, with Mitch Miller as her producer. The 1950 LP Marlene Dietrich Overseas, with Dietrich singing German translations of American songs of the Second World War era, was a prestige hit. She also recorded several duets with Rosemary Clooney; these tapped into a younger market and charted.
During the 1960s, Dietrich recorded several albums and many singles, mostly with Burt Bacharach at the helm of the orchestra. Dietrich in London, recorded live at the Queen’s Theatre in 1964, is an enduring document of Dietrich in concert.
In 1978, her performance of the title track from her last film, Just a Gigolo, was issued as a single. She made her last recordings from her Paris apartment in 1987: spoken introductions to songs for a nostalgia album by Udo Lindenberg.
From the 1950s to the mid-1970s Dietrich toured internationally as a successful cabaret performer. Her repertoire included songs from her films as well as popular songs of the day. Until the mid-1960s her musical director was famed composer Burt Bacharach.
His arrangements helped to disguise Dietrich's limited vocal range and allowed her to perform her songs to maximum dramatic effect. Costumes by Jean Louis, body-sculpting undergarments, careful stage lighting and temporary mini-facelifts helped to preserve Dietrich's glamorous image well into old age.
Her return to Germany in 1960 for a concert tour elicited a mixed response. Many Germans felt she had betrayed her homeland by her actions during World War II. During her performances at Berlin's Titania Palast theatre, protesters chanted, "Marlene Go Home!" On the other hand, Dietrich was warmly welcomed by other Germans, including Berlin mayor Willy Brandt. The tour was an artistic triumph but a financial failure. She also undertook a tour of Israel around the same time, which was well-received; she sang some songs in German during her concerts, including a German version of Pete Seeger's anti-war anthem, Where Have All the Flowers Gone, thus breaking the unofficial taboo against the use of German in Israel.
In 1968, she received a Tony Award for her stage show. The show was broadcast on television in 1973.
Her show business career largely ended on September 29, 1975, when she broke her leg during a stage performance in Australia. She appeared briefly in the film, Just a Gigolo, in 1979, and wrote and contributed to several books during the 1980s.
She spent her last decade mostly bed-ridden, in her apartment on the avenue Montaigne No. 12 in Paris, during which time she was not seen in public but was a prolific letter-writer and phone-caller. Maximilian Schell persuaded Dietrich to be interviewed for his 1984 documentary Marlene, but she did not appear on screen. She was in constant contact with her daughter, who came to Paris regularly to check on her. Her husband, Rudolf Sieber, had died of cancer on June 24, 1976.
In an interview with the German magazine Der Spiegel in November 2005, her daughter and grandson claim that Marlene Dietrich was politically active during these years. She would keep contact with world leaders by telephone, running up a monthly bill of over US$3,000. Her contacts included Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Dietrich died peacefully of renal failure on May 6, 1992, at the age of 90 in Paris. A service was conducted at La Madeleine in Paris before 3,500 mourners and a crowd of well-wishers outside. Her body, covered with an American flag, was then returned to Berlin where she was interred at the Städtischer Friedhof III, Berlin-Schöneberg, Stubenrauchstraße 43-45, in Friedenau Cemetery, not far from the house where she was born.
Throughout her long career, starting as a cabaret singer in 1920s Berlin, Hollywood actress, World War II frontline entertainer and finally an international stage show performer, Dietrich constantly re-invented herself and eventually became one of the entertainment icons of the 20th century. The American Film Institute ranked Dietrich No. 9 amongst the Greatest Female Stars of All Time.
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