Maria Riva, the acclaimed actress and author, who was the sole child of the legendary, boundary-pushing screen siren Marlene Dietrich, passed away on Wednesday in Gila, N.M., at the age of 100. Her groundbreaking biography of her mother, published a year after Dietrich’s death in 1992, unflinchingly exposed the profound personal sacrifices made in the relentless pursuit of fame.
Her son, Peter, confirmed her passing at his home, where she had resided for the past eighteen months.
Born in Berlin, Ms. Riva’s father, Rudolph Sieber, a charismatic assistant director, initially cast Dietrich in one of her early film roles. They married in 1923, and as Dietrich’s star ascended, Maria Riva spent much of her childhood immersed in the world of Hollywood, particularly on the bustling backlots of Paramount Pictures.
Formal schooling was deemed unnecessary by Dietrich, who found English vulgar and Americans even more so. Instead, she insisted on keeping her daughter, whom she affectionately called “The Child,” constantly by her side, serving as both handmaiden and personal assistant.
Ironically, it was Josef von Sternberg, the Vienna-born director who became Dietrich’s artistic mentor and lover—the man who launched her international career with “The Blue Angel” (1930)—who taught Ms. Riva essential American film terminology like “soundstage,” “makeup,” and “wardrobe department.” This film marked the first of their seven collaborations.
Maria quickly became adept at her unusual duties, which included meticulously caring for her mother’s elaborate costumes and props, signing countless publicity photos, and maintaining absolute silence on film sets. Dietrich’s costume designer even crafted a special uniform for her, officially bestowing the title: “attendant to Miss Marlene.” For much of her youth, she believed her full name was “Maria Daughter of Marlene Dietrich” and remained uncertain of her true age, as her mother routinely altered her own birth year.
Maria Riva in an undated photo. As the daughter of movie star Marlene Dietrich, she became skilled early on at handling her mother’s costumes, props, and even signing publicity photos. (Credit: Getty Images)
In the 1934 film “The Scarlet Empress,” Marlene Dietrich portrayed Catherine the Great, while a young Maria Riva played the same character as a girl. Though Maria was 9 at the time, her mother often insisted she was younger. (Credit: Everett Collection)
Their family life was anything but ordinary. Rudolph Sieber, based in Paris, would occasionally visit, bringing his meek Russian mistress, Tami. His duties included managing Dietrich’s finances, overseeing Maria’s upbringing, and meticulously archiving his wife’s voluminous correspondence—many letters from her numerous lovers, which Dietrich frequently read aloud. Maria cherished these visits, as Tami provided much-needed affection, acting as nanny and housekeeper within the unusual household.
“Dietrich was the queen,” Ms. Riva once explained. “My father was her major-domo, her lovers were her suitors, and I was the lady in waiting. I didn’t think it was strange; I had nothing to compare it to.”
Without school, Maria had no childhood friends. Her closest companions included the more unassuming of Dietrich’s lovers—like English actor Brian Aherne, who secretly provided her with Shakespeare plays—and her ever-present bodyguards. These guards were assigned after a kidnapping threat following the Charles Lindbergh baby case; one even gifted her a pet frog.
At around age 12, Maria experienced her first interaction with other children when invited to Judy Garland’s birthday party. Terrified and unsure of how “normal” children behaved, she and Judy found common ground on the porch, bonding over their uniquely sheltered lives. Meanwhile, the unknown guests deftly navigated adolescent slang and a bewildering game called spin the bottle.
A young Maria Riva with her mother, Marlene Dietrich. Their family life was, by all accounts, highly unconventional. (Credit: Getty Images)
Throughout Maria’s early teenage years, her mother’s numerous male and female companions would discreetly depart before dawn, maintaining the illusion that they were merely close friends. This evolving circle of intimates included figures like Josef von Sternberg, Maurice Chevalier, Gary Cooper, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and the poet-playwright Mercedes de Acosta, also known as a lover of Greta Garbo.
These “friends” would often reappear, freshly dressed, for breakfast. Dietrich approached her culinary endeavors with the same zest as her nocturnal escapades. However, Ms. Riva surmised that this elaborate charade eventually became tiresome for all involved, as her mother increasingly housed her with governesses in various hotels and rented accommodations.
Dietrich’s personal life was legendary, featuring a diverse cast of lovers that spanned decades, from General George S. Patton to Colette and Adlai Stevenson. During one period in London, Ms. Riva recalled breakfasts with Michael Arlen, lunches with Christopher Fry, tea with Kenneth Tynan, and “a sexy new Swedish blonde to supper.”
An interesting exception was John Wayne, who co-starred with Dietrich in three films during the early 1940s and seemed immune to her allure. Years later, when Ms. Riva asked him why he hadn’t succumbed, he simply replied: “Never liked being part of a stable.”
Despite her extensive romantic life, Dietrich reportedly wasn’t keen on the sexual act itself, at least not with men. She preferred fellatio, or even better, impotent men. “They are nice,” she once told her daughter. “You can sleep and it’s cozy.”
Maria Riva pictured with her mother and father, Rudolf Sieber, in an undated photo. Mr. Sieber, an assistant director, gave Dietrich one of her first film roles. (Credit: Getty Images)
In stark contrast, Ms. Riva’s nights were far from “cozy.” A governess-companion subjected her to repeated sexual assault for over a year. This trauma led to teenage alcoholism and suicidal thoughts. She briefly married in her late teens.
By the age of 20, Ms. Riva was divorced, still struggling with heavy drinking, and, as she described it, “drifting” in San Francisco. There, she found work with a kind drag performer (her mother, meanwhile, was in Europe with General Patton’s First Army). Maria proved highly capable in her role, noting, “A trained-by-Dietrich dresser can function very nicely as handmaiden to a female impersonator of Sophie Tucker.” Her employer offered her care, food, and shelter during a time when she subsisted on ketchup and bourbon. Despite this support, she began hoarding sleeping pills, still battling suicidal ideations.
A turning point arrived when a friend gave her “The Neurotic Personality of Our Time,” a seminal work by German psychoanalyst Karen Horney. This anti-Freudian book explored the social roots of emotional distress, and Ms. Riva credited it with saving her life.
“I found myself in it,” she recounted to The Chicago Tribune in 1993, finding solace in its pages.
After gaining sobriety, Ms. Riva relocated to New York City and dedicated herself to a demanding acting career. She toured Europe with a U.S.O. company until the war’s end, then returned to New York. While directing a play with producer Albert McCleery at Fordham University, she met set designer William Riva. They fell in love and married in 1947.
Despite her disapproval of the marriage, Dietrich exerted a constant and often overbearing presence in the Riva household, particularly after the birth of Maria’s first child, Michael, in 1948. When Life magazine featured Dietrich on its August cover, declaring her “The Most Glamorous Grandmother,” the star was reportedly displeased. “It automatically makes my age a subject for great discussion,” she remarked in 1952. “That is ridiculous. It is quite common to have grandchildren at 35.” Dietrich was, in fact, 51 at the time.
“What is it like, to have a mother no one knows?” Ms. Riva famously mused in her writings. “Must be nice.”
Maria Riva, right, in 1951 with her mother and husband, William Riva. Despite Dietrich’s disapproval of their 1947 marriage, she remained a dominant figure in the Riva home. (Credit: Getty Images)
Maria Elizabeth Sieber, born in Berlin on December 13, 1924, only discovered her true birth year after her father’s death in 1976, when she found her birth certificate. (Rudolph Sieber and Marlene Dietrich remained married, though separated, until his passing.)
Maria Riva did attend a Swiss finishing school for a few years, but Dietrich, true to form, incessantly called her daughter, often pulling her from exams and hockey games. It was evident Dietrich struggled with the absence of her devoted handmaiden. Maria also honed her acting skills at director Max Reinhardt’s workshop in Hollywood.
Following her marriage, Ms. Riva embarked on a prolific career as a television actress, signing with CBS and appearing in over 500 teleplays and numerous commercials. She also toured in theatrical productions. However, with the birth of her fourth son, David, in 1961, she retired from acting to prioritize her family. She continued her volunteer work, participating in telethons for cerebral palsy—a cause she began supporting at the behest of Yul Brynner, another of Dietrich’s many admirers. Additionally, she produced her mother’s renowned cabaret act for as long as Dietrich was physically able to perform.
Ms. Riva is survived by her sons Peter, Paul, and David, as well as eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. Her husband, William Riva, passed away in 1999, and their son Michael died in 2012.
Marlene Dietrich and Maria Riva in approximately 1950. Dietrich was famously irritated when Life magazine declared her “The Most Glamorous Grandmother” in 1948. (Credit: Everett Collection)
Dietrich’s final years unfolded in a squalid Paris apartment, not due to poverty or neglect, but by choice. She shunned visitors, and, debilitated by various ailments, she neglected hygiene, often using household items as makeshift bedpans. Her days were spent on the phone with fans and past lovers, fueled by a potent mix of pills, alcohol, and questionable remedies, all while meticulously crafting fantasies and reshaping truths to preserve her carefully constructed legend.
In 1993, a year after Marlene Dietrich’s death at 90, Ms. Riva released “Marlene Dietrich,” a biography that had been years in the making. It was met with widespread critical acclaim and generated immense publicity.
Molly Haskell, reviewing for The Times, hailed the book as “the ultimate act of demystification, a startling and riveting work.”
“I think those of us who live with great fame have to say that it is a trick of survival and that a lot of us don’t like it,” Ms. Riva confided to Diane Sawyer in a 1993 television interview. She emphasized that writing the book was not merely a choice, but a necessity.
“Power must not be allowed to triumph all the time,” Ms. Riva asserted, reflecting on her childhood servitude. “It mustn’t be forgiven no matter what it does, because it’s beautiful, because it’s famous, because it’s powerful.”