Maria Riva

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Maria Riva November 11, 2005 Berlin Film Museum

Maria Elisabeth Riva (* 13 December 1924 in Berlin as Maria Elisabeth Sieber ) is an American actress and only child of actress Marlene Dietrich .

Life

Maria was born in Berlin in 1924 as the daughter of Marlene Dietrich and her husband, assistant director Rudolf Sieber . After her mother Marlene Dietrich went to Hollywood and shot her first film Morocco there, she brought Maria to California. This is how she came into contact with show business at a young age. In the film Die Scharlachrote Kaiserin (1934) she shared the title role with her mother: while she played Katharina the great as a child, Marlene Dietrich portrayed her as an adult. She also played small roles in other films, such as in The Garden of Allah .

During the Second World War, Maria received acting lessons at Max Reinhardt's drama school in Hollywood. After graduation, she called herself Maria Manton and played theater in Hollywood, took on directing and gave lessons. Shortly before the end of the war, she followed her mother to Europe and took on a role in the stage play The Front Page , with which she toured through destroyed Europe for the American troop support and also through Germany after the end of the war.

After she returned to America, she married the set designer William Riva in 1947 and lived mostly in New York. She had four sons, including John Michael Riva, later known as the film architect . As an actress, Riva worked mainly in the theater as well as for radio and television (here in particular in the 1950s for numerous television episodes at CBS Television ). In 1988, she impersonated the wife of Robert Mitchum's character in the Dickens film parody The Ghosts I Called - her son John Michael Riva was the architect of the film.

Riva also took care of her mother's needs. This intensified over the years, especially when Marlene Dietrich withdrew to her Paris apartment and no longer received anyone. In 1992 she published a biography about her mother, who died shortly before, which was also published in German under the title Meine Mutter Marlene . In 2001 the documentary Her Own Song was released , which was created by Maria Riva's son David Riva and in which she reports in detail about her mother. In 2005, Riva published the poems and thought notes her mother wrote in her apartment on Avenue Montaigne in the last few years before her death. Under the title Night Thoughts , the book became a bestseller.

In 2018 she stood in front of the camera for the short film All Aboard , shot by her grandson John Michael Riva Jr., in the role of a demented woman. Maria Riva now lives in Los Angeles.

Filmography (selection)

bibliography

  • Maria Riva: My mother Marlene (original title: Marlene Dietrich by Her Daughter, translated by Julia Beise). Goldmann, Munich 1992, ISBN 3-570-01757-5 ; RM-Buchvertrieb, Rheda-Wiedenbrück 2000, ISBN 3-442-72653-0 .
  • Maria Riva, Werner Sudendorf; Jean-Jacques Naudet, Peter Riva (Ed.): Marlene Dietrich. For the 100th birthday (original title: Marlene Dietrich , translated by Corina von Trotha and Robert Fisch). Nicolai, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-8758-4111-5 .

Web links

Commons : Maria Riva  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Film architect John Michael Riva died at the age of 63 . The standard. June 9, 2012. Archived from the original on June 10, 2012. Retrieved June 11, 2012.
  2. ↑ The poet from the Avenue Montaigne: Marlene Dietrichs "Nachtgedanken" , review from November 19, 2005 by Andreas Kilb on Faz.net
personal data
SURNAME Riva, Maria
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sieber, Maria Elisabeth (maiden name); Riva, Maria Elisabeth (married name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American author and actress, daughter of Marlene Dietrich
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin