{{Short description|American actress (1924–2025)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=June 2022}} {{Infobox person | name = Maria Riva | image = Maria Riva 1951.jpg | caption = Riva in 1951 | birth_name = Maria Elisabeth Sieber | birth_date = {{Birth date|1924|12|13}} | birth_place = Berlin, Germany | death_date = {{Death date and age|2025|10|29|1924|12|13}} | death_place = Gila, New Mexico, U.S. | occupation = {{hlist|Actress|author}} | years_active = 1933–1988<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.amazon.com/You-Were-There-Before-Eyes-ebook/dp/B075JS715X|title=You Were There Before My Eyes|first=Maria|last=Riva|date=October 10, 2017|publisher=Pegasus Books|via=Amazon}}</ref> | spouse = {{plainlist| * {{marriage|Dean Goodman|1943|1944|reason=divorced}} * {{marriage|William Riva|1947|1999|reason=died}} }} | children = 4, including J. Michael Riva | mother = Marlene Dietrich }}
'''Maria Elisabeth Riva''' (née '''Sieber'''; December 13, 1924 – October 29, 2025) was an American actress and memoirist. The daughter of actress Marlene Dietrich, she worked on television at CBS in the 1950s, during which she received numerous television acting roles and was twice Emmy-nominated. She published a memoir on her mother in 1992.
== Early life == Maria Elisabeth Sieber was born in Berlin on December 13, 1924,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/maria-riva?clip=chapter1#interview-clips|title=Maria Riva|date=October 22, 2017 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/authors/Maria-Riva/172302882|title=Maria Riva|website=Simon & Schuster }}</ref> the only child of actress Marlene Dietrich and assistant film director Rudolf Sieber (who was later Paramount Pictures' director of dubbing in Paris, France).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riva |first=Maria |date=1992 |location=New York |publisher=Ballantine Books |title=Marlene Dietrich |page=53 |url=https://archive.org/details/marlenedietrich00riva_0/page/52/mode/2up?q=december+13 |via=Internet Archive |isbn=0-345-38645-0}}</ref> In 1930, at age five, she moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California. She spent most of her time at home, on the Paramount Studios lot, and in the company of her mother's friends. In 1934, aged nine, she had a small role in Josef von Sternberg's film ''The Scarlet Empress'', based on the life of Catherine the Great, in which she played Catherine, her mother's character, as a child. Since no young actress could be found who resembled her mother, she was given the part. In her scenes in the film she was filmed in bed because she was older in real life than the character she played. She was also an extra in the 1936 David O. Selznick production, ''The Garden of Allah''.{{Citation needed |date=August 2024}}
In order for Dietrich to keep her daughter close to her, Riva was not permitted to attend school; instead she had governesses who saw to her education. Her mother relented in the late 1930s, allowing her to attend Brillantmont International School in Switzerland. During her time at Brillantmont, her roommate was actress Gene Tierney.<ref name="auto">{{Cite web|url=https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/interviews/maria-riva|title=Maria Riva|date=October 22, 2017|website=Television Academy Interviews}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://lastgoddess.blogspot.com/2011/05/maria-rivas-blind-items-pt-1.html|title=Marlene Dietrich: The Last Goddess: Maria Riva's Blind Items Pt. 1|date=May 18, 2011}}</ref><ref name="auto1">{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/marlenedite00riva|title=Marlene Dietrich|first=Maria|last=Riva|date=June 20, 1993|publisher=New York : Knopf|isbn=9780394586922 |via=Internet Archive}}</ref> During her childhood, she would often join the Kennedy family on vacation along with her mother;<ref name=rosemaryfriendship>{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/celebrity/rosemary-kennedy-friendship-with-marlene-dietrichs-daughter-maria-riva/|title=Rosemary Kennedy Friendship with Marlene Dietrich's Daughter Maria Riva|website=People.com}}</ref> her mother was also acknowledged to have started a major, long-term extramarital affair with Kennedy family patriarch Joe Kennedy in 1938.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2009/03/dietrich-kennedy200903|title=It Happened at the Hôtel du Cap|first=Cari|last=Beauchamp|publisher=Vanity Fair|date=February 13, 2009|accessdate=October 30, 2025}}</ref> Despite the six-year age difference between the two, she became good friends with Rosemary Kennedy, saying of their friendship, "Perhaps being two misfits, we felt comfortable in each other's company".<ref name=rosemaryfriendship />
In her biography about her mother, she describes the childhood conditions and effects of a rape at age thirteen by a nanny. She wrote, "In some ways I was trained for rape. Always obedient, always trying to please those in charge of me."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riva |first=Maria |title=Marlene Dietrich: The Life |publisher=Pegusus |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-68177-502-9 |location=New York |pages=500 |language=English}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=TimesMachine: Friday January 29, 1993 – NYTimes.com |url=http://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1993/01/29/issue.html |access-date=March 18, 2022 |website=timesmachine.nytimes.com |language=en}}</ref> Riva has also alleged that she was raped by her governess at the age of 15.<ref name=march1993interview>{{Cite web|url=https://people.com/archive/dietrich-dearest-vol-39-no-9/|first=David|last=Hutchings|title=Dietrich Dearest|publisher=People|date=March 8, 1993}}</ref><ref name=placeofdeath>{{cite news|url=https://people.com/maria-riva-dead-marlene-dietrich-daughter-8663061|title=Maria Riva, Daughter of Marlene Dietrich and Actress, Dies at 100|first=Victoria|last=Edel|publisher=People|date=October 30, 2025|accessdate=October 30, 2025}}</ref>
== Career ==
=== Acting career === [[File:Herbert Berghof-Maria Riva in Suspense (Death Drum).jpg|thumb|Herbert Berghof and Maria Riva in the ''Suspense'' episode "Death Drum" (1952)|left]] At the age of 15, Riva received acting training at the Max Reinhardt Academy and during the Second World War entertained Allied troops in Europe for the USO from 1945 to 1946, stationed in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. In the early 1940s, she briefly went by the stage name Maria Manton. She also acted in theatre and summer stock, including a production of ''Tea and Sympathy''. She appeared at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway in the 1954 production ''The Burning Glass'', opposite Cedric Hardwicke and Walter Matthau.<ref name="burning">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=2443|title=IBDb: ''The Burning Glass''|year=2009|work=IBDb|publisher=The Broadway League|access-date=December 26, 2009}}</ref>
In the early years of television, the major television networks of the time tried to build their own stable of actors in the same fashion as the film studios. In 1951, Riva was signed to CBS as a contract player receiving a salary of $250 per week.<ref name="auto" />
Whilst under contract to CBS, Riva not only acted in television productions, she also appeared in television commercials promoting Alcoa, as well as appearing in print advertisements for Rheingold Beer.<ref name="beerprintads">{{Cite web |title=ALCOA Aluminum Foil TV Ad with Maria Riva – Film & Video Stock |url=https://www.efootage.com/videos/69770/alcoa-aluminum-foil-tv-ad-maria-riva |access-date=November 3, 2025 |website=eFootage}}</ref><ref name=beerprintadvertising>{{Cite web|url=https://brookstonbeerbulletin.com/beer-ads-2568-beer-rheingold-says-maria-riva/|title=Beer In Ads #2568: My Beer Is Rheingold Says Maria Riva|date=March 4, 2018|website=Brookston Beer Bulletin}}</ref>
During the medium's early days of live, kinescope broadcasts, Riva showed to be one of the top television personalities.<ref name=rivadeathandinfo>{{cite web |last=Barnes |first=Mike |title=Maria Riva, Actress and Daughter of Marlene Dietrich, Dies at 100 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/maria-riva-dead-marlene-dietrich-daughter-1236413554/ |website=The Hollywood Reporter |access-date=October 29, 2025}}</ref>
During the 1950s, Riva appeared in more than 500 live teleplays for CBS, all broadcast from New York, including ''The Milton Berle Show'', ''Lux Video Theatre'', ''Hallmark Hall of Fame'', ''Your Show of Shows'', and ''Studio One''. She received Emmy nominations as best actress in both 1952 and 1953.
In a January 1953 issue of ''Motion Picture Daily'', Riva was named as one of "Television's Best of 1952" alongside fellow television stars Sid Caesar, Lucille Ball, Dinah Shore, Kate Smith, and others.
In 1962, having retired from acting, Riva moved to Bern, Switzerland, with her husband and four sons, dividing her time between a home in New York, purchased for her by her mother in 1948, and their home in Switzerland. Riva then devoted much of the 1960s to organizing her mother's one-woman shows.<ref name=march1993interview /> Riva appeared as Mrs. Rhinelander—the wife of Robert Mitchum's character—in Bill Murray's 1988 film ''Scrooged''. In 2001, she was interviewed for ''Her Own Song'', a documentary about her mother.
In 2018, Riva returned to acting, starring in a short-film entitled ''All Aboard'', directed by her grandson J. Michael Riva, Jr.
=== Writing === Riva's biography of her mother, ''Marlene Dietrich'', was published in 1992, the year of Dietrich's death. The book was well received and went on to become a ''New York Times'' Best Seller.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/29/arts/the-dietrich-mystique.html|title=The Dietrich Mystique|last=James|first=Caryn|date=January 29, 1993 |access-date=May 31, 2018|language=en}}</ref>
Riva contributed the captions to the 2001 book, ''Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories; From the Marlene Dietrich Collection of the FilmMuseum Berlin,'' which consists of previously unseen images of her mother.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Marlene Dietrich : photographs and memories : from the Marlene Dietrich Collection of the FilmMuseum Berlin {{!}} WorldCat.org |oclc=48454267 |language=en}}</ref> In 2005, Riva edited a volume of Dietrich's poetry, ''Nachtgedanken'', which was published in Germany and Italy.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Bergman |first=Megan Mayhew |date=2016-12-26 |title=Marlene Dietrich's Marginalia |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/marlene-dietrichs-marginalia |access-date=2025-06-29 |magazine=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref>
Riva published her first novel, ''You Were There Before My Eyes: A Novel'', in 2017. The novel is about a woman who leaves her Italian village and enters a new world as an immigrant in Detroit.
In 2017, Riva also published the 25th anniversary edition of the biography of her mother, re-titled ''Marlene Dietrich: The Life''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Marlene Dietrich: The Life|edition=Kindle|isbn=978-1-68177-502-9|last=Riva|first=Maria|date= 2017 |publisher=Pegasus Books }}</ref> thumb|267x267px|Riva in 2005
== Personal life == In early 1943, Riva was briefly engaged to actor Richard Haydn; however, that same year she married actor Dean Goodman, whom she divorced in 1944.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Dean |url=http://archive.org/details/mariamarlenemein00good |title=Maria, Marlene, & me: intimate recollections of a life in theatre and film |date=1993 |publisher=San Francisco, CA : Shadbolt Press |others=Internet Archive |isbn=978-0-9638659-0-8 |pages=68, 75, 160}}</ref> In the summer of 1947, while teaching a graduate course in acting and directing at Fordham University, she met her second husband, scenic designer William Riva, and they married on July 4. They remained married for over 50 years until his death in July 1999.<ref name="nytimesobit">{{cite news |date=July 13, 1999 |title=William Riva, Scenic Designer, 79 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/13/arts/william-riva-scenic-designer-79.html?pagewanted=1 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/13/arts/william-riva-scenic-designer-79.html|title=William Riva, Scenic Designer, 79|newspaper=The New York Times |date=July 13, 1999}}</ref> They had four sons together, including production designer J. Michael Riva.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/marlenedietrich00riva_0/mode/2up |isbn=9780345386458 |title=Marlene Dietrich |year=1994 |publisher=Ballantine Books }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Riva |first=Maria |url=https://archive.org/details/marlenedietrich00riva_0/page/598 |title=Marlene Dietrich |publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-345-38645-8 |page=[https://archive.org/details/marlenedietrich00riva_0/page/598 598]}}</ref> Her second son, Peter Riva, president and owner of International Transactions, alongside his wife Sandra found some success as a literary agent, beginning in 1975.<ref>{{cite web |title=International Transactions: Our Story |url=https://intltrans.com/our-story/ |accessdate=October 30, 2025 |publisher=International Transactions}}</ref>
Riva maintained friendships with many of her mother's friends and associates, including Brian Aherne, Jean Gabin, Edward R. Murrow, and Yul Brynner, with whom she participated in telethons to benefit United Cerebral Palsy during the 1950s.<ref name="auto1"/>
However, Riva had a very strained relationship with her mother, who she stated was a cruel, manipulative narcissist who sought to use her to boost her own legacy rather than love her as if she were her child.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Riva |first=Maria |title=Marlene Dietrich: The Life |publisher=Pegusus |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-68177-502-9 |location=New York |language=English}}</ref><ref name=march1993interview /> When discussing her biography ''Marlene Dietrich'' in 1992, Riva stated "I consider myself a biographer, not the daughter."<ref name=rivadeathandinfo /> She said it was very difficult "to be a child of an ephemeral creature that is beyond normalcy."<ref name=rivadeathandinfo />
At a young age, Riva developed a drinking problem.<ref name=placeofdeath /> However, despite even later appearing in beer print advertisements in the early 1950s,<ref name=beerprintads /><ref name=beerprintadvertising /> Riva had in fact stopped drinking alcohol since the short time following her 1944 divorce.<ref name=placeofdeath />
On September 14, 1993, more than a year after her mother's death, Riva sold the bulk of her mother's estate to the city of Berlin to be housed in the then soon-to-be-opening Deutsche Kinemathek for $5 million. The Marlene Dietrich Collection was initially reported to have included 100,000 possessions; diaries, books, costumes, traveling trunks, and memorabilia. Riva cited her desire to keep the collection together as reason for selling the collection to the city of Berlin to be maintained and displayed in the Deutsche Kinemathek. Riva's son, Peter, said "We chose Berlin, because they are committed to preserving each piece in the collection, which will be part of a new museum complex with the collection as part of its core."<ref>{{Cite news |last=Reif |first=Rita |date=September 15, 1993 |title=Berlin Buys Collection Of Dietrich Memorabilia |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1993/09/15/movies/berlin-buys-collection-of-dietrich-memorabilia.html |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> However, it was later revealed that the collection also included more items, including over 3,000 textile items from the 1920s to the 1990s, including film and stage costumes as well as over a thousand items from Dietrich's personal wardrobe; 15,000 photographs, by Sir Cecil Beaton, Horst P. Horst, George Hurrell, Lord Snowdon, and Edward Steichen; 300,000 pages of documents, including correspondence with Burt Bacharach, Yul Brynner, Maurice Chevalier, Noël Coward, Jean Gabin, Ernest Hemingway, Karl Lagerfeld, Nancy and Ronald Reagan, Erich Maria Remarque, Josef von Sternberg, Orson Welles, and Billy Wilder; as well as other items like film posters and sound recordings.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marlene.com/berlin.html|title=Marlene Dietrich: Berlin|accessdate=30 October 2025|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130103183538/http://www.marlene.com/berlin.html|archive-date=3 January 2013}}</ref>
In 1993, Riva stated to ''People'' that she was raped at the age of 15 by her governess, a secret she kept from her mother due to the fact that she felt her mother "wouldn't believe me".<ref name=march1993interview /><ref name=placeofdeath /> According to Riva, her mother "had this ability to mentally erase anything she didn’t like to hear. I’ve never been judgmental of that woman who raped me. But I do blame [my mother], who made it possible for [that woman] to take what was placed before her.”<ref name=march1993interview /><ref name=placeofdeath />
In June 2012, her son Michael died, aged 63, following a stroke.<ref>{{cite news |last=Carlson |first=Erin |date=June 8, 2012 |title='Django Unchained' Production Designer J. Michael Riva Dies at 63 |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/j-michael-riva-dead-335296/ |access-date=October 30, 2025 |publisher=The Hollywood Reporter}}</ref><ref name="ds">{{cite news |author=Reynolds, Simon |date=2012-06-08 |title='Django Unchained' production designer J Michael Riva dies, aged 63 |url=https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/news/a386029/django-unchained-production-designer-j-michael-riva-dies-aged-63.html |accessdate=2012-10-30 |publisher=Digital Spy}}</ref><ref name="var">{{cite news |author1=Dickey, Josh L. |author2=Sneider, Jeff |date=2012-06-07 |title='Django' prod'n designer Riva dies at 63 |url=https://www.variety.com/article/VR1118055222 |accessdate=2012-06-08 |work=Variety}}</ref>
Riva primarily lived in Palm Springs, California, but eventually moved into her son Peter's home in Gila, New Mexico,<ref name="placeofdeath" /> in 2024. She turned 100 on December 13 of that year,<ref>{{cite web |last=Heil |first=Christiane |title=Marlene Dietrichs Tochter Maria Riva wird 100: Verhältnis zur Mutter war kompliziert |url=https://www.faz.net/aktuell/gesellschaft/menschen/marlene-dietrichs-tochter-maria-riva-wird-100-verhaeltnis-zur-mutter-war-kompliziert-110170422.html |website=Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung |date=December 13, 2024 |access-date=13 December 2024 |language=German}}</ref> and died in her sleep in Gila on October 29, 2025.<ref name="placeofdeath" /><ref name="rivadeathandinfo" />
== Selected filmography == {{Incomplete list|date=October 2025}} {|class="wikitable" |- ! Year ! Title ! Role |- | 1928 || ''Die glückliche Mutter'' || Maria Riva as a Child |- | 1934 || ''The Scarlet Empress'' || Sophia as a Child |- | 1936 || ''The King Steps Out'' || Girl Playing Violin |- | 1936 || ''The Garden of Allah'' || Young Girl Sewing |- | 1988 || ''Scrooged'' || Mrs. Rhinelander |- |}
== Stage appearances == {|class="wikitable" |- |- style="text-align:center;" ! Date !! Title !! Theatre !! Notes |- | March 13, 1945 – June 9, 1945 || ''Foolish Notion'' || Al Hirschfeld Theatre, New York City || Played Flora & Elsie |- | March 4, 1954 – March 27, 1954 || ''The Burning Glass'' || Longacre Theatre, New York City || Played Mary Terriford |- | 1956 || ''Tea and Sympathy'' || Various || National tour |}
== Works == * {{Cite book |last= Riva |first= Maria |year= 1992 |title= Marlene Dietrich |publisher= Ballantine Books |isbn= 0-345-38645-0 |url= https://archive.org/details/marlenedietrich00riva_0 }} * {{Cite book |last=Riva |first=Maria |year=2001 |title= Marlene Dietrich: Photographs and Memories |publisher= Thames & Hudson Ltd. |isbn= 0-500-51071-7}} * {{Cite book |last=Dietrich |first=Marlene |author-link=Marlene Dietrich |year=2005 |title=Nachtgedanken |publisher=C. Bertelsmann |isbn=978-3-570-00874-4 |editor-last=Riva |editor-first=Maria}} * {{Cite book |last=Riva |first= Maria |year=2017 |title= You Were There Before My Eyes: A Novel |publisher= W.W. Norton & Company Ltd. |isbn= 978-1-68177-507-4}}
== Awards and nominations == {| class="wikitable" |+ !Year !Organization !Category !Work !Result !Ref. |- |1952 | rowspan="2" |Primetime Emmy Awards | rowspan="2" |Best Actress |{{N/a}} |{{Nominated}} | rowspan="2" |<ref>{{Cite web |title=Maria Riva |url=https://www.televisionacademy.com/bios/maria-riva |access-date=2025-09-03 |website=Television Academy |language=en}}</ref> |- |1953 |{{N/a}} |{{Nominated}} |}
==See also== * List of centenarians (actors, filmmakers and entertainers)
== References == {{Reflist}}
== External links == * {{IMDb name|728958}} * {{IBDB name|110907}} * {{EmmyTVLegends name|maria-riva|Maria Riva}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riva, Maria}} Category:1924 births Category:2025 deaths Category:21st-century American women Category:Actresses from Berlin Category:Actresses from Los Angeles Category:American film actresses Category:American child actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:American television actresses Category:American women centenarians Category:Actresses from Palm Springs, California Category:German emigrants to the United States Category:Marlene Dietrich