By the time she died in 1996, she had been long forgotten, unlike her jazz-age rival Marlene Dietrich.
Due to the coming of sound films and her disgust with Adolf Hitler's takeover of the German film industry, she retired to Switzerland in 1935 and never made another film. She lived out the rest of her life in quiet solitude repeatedly refusing to talk about her film career anywhere at any time.
Josef Von Sternberg's original choice for the starring role of The Blue Angel (1930) which went to Marlene Dietrich.
Only German actress to date mentioned in the "In Memoriam" section during the telecast of the 69th annual Academy Awards in 1997. (June 2008).
Supposedly director James Whale's first choice for his Bride of Frankenstein (1935). She refused to come to America.