Marlene is a contraction of Maria + Magdalene. **Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992)** was the **German-American actress and singer whose androgynous style and sultry voice defined inter-war Berlin and post-war Hollywood**. **One of the first major movie stars to publicly renounce Nazi Germany** — she became a US citizen in 1939, performed for Allied troops during WWII, and was awarded the **Presidential Medal of Freedom and the French Legion of Honour**. Her *Lili Marleen* became the unofficial song of soldiers on both sides of the war.
Subject of Maximilian Schell's documentary *Marlene* (1984).
Marlene reduces to four — the number of Weimar to Hollywood icon.