Marlene Dietrich (December 27, 1901 - May 6, 1992)

I don't know a whole lot about Marlene Dietrich but she is being remembered on this blog for two very special performances. Between 1919 and 1929 she appeared in 19 German films. In 1930 she appeared in her first American production and would appeared in 33 more up until 1961. The two performances I mentioned above came in 1950's "Stage Fright" Starring Jane Wyman and in 1957's "Witness for the Prosecution" Starring Tyrone Power. In "Stage Fright" Dietrich and Jane Wyman have wonderful chemistry and you can tell there is a great deal of admiration between the two of them off camera. Dietrich was terribly disappointed when she didn't receive an Oscar nomination for her work in "Witness for the Prosecution." She damn well deserved that statue too. I won't spoil it for you...but she does a great job! Her final major film appearance was in "Judgment at Nuremburg" in 1961. She did a lot of stage work following that but in 1975 she fell on stage and severely broke her leg. She remained confined to her bed for her remaining years and finally passed away of kidney failure in 1992 at the age of 90. The silver screen will never again see a star shine like this lady did. I truly believe that there are no "stars" anymore. Marlene Dietrich and folks like her will never be duplicated.

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