Did Marlene Dietrich have a crush on Burt Bacharach? Singer made voodoo doll resembling Angie Dickinson, songwriter’s second wife

American songwriter and composer Burt Bacharach passed away at the age of 94 on Friday. Among Bacharach’s earliest collaborations was one with the German-American actress and singer Marlene Dietrich. Things would turn ugly between Bacharach and Dietrich when he would marry his second wife Angie Dickinson, says The Daily Mail from past interviews with him.

Bacharach once told the outlet that after his marriage to Angie Dickinson in 1965, Dietrich was so angry that she made a voodoo doll resembling her, and put pins on it.

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“You married that slut – how could you have done such a thing,” Dietrich told Bacharach.

“She didn’t want me to marry anybody. Not just Angie. Nobody,” he added. “It was a big threat for Marlene.”

In the 1950s, while Bacharach was making his way up as a songwriter, his first big break came from Dietrich.

In 1956, he started working as Marlene Dietrich’s arranger and conductor and it was his first step with a big name in the industry. He also started writing his own songs at this time, and after working with her for five years, he moved on to pursue full-time songwriting.

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After his autobiography was published, Bacharach gave an interview to The Guardian in which he spoke at length about his relationship with Dietrich. He said that Dietrich’s music “sucked”, but admitted that he “liked her”.

“I started in Vegas with her, trying to make a living,” he says. “You could say the music wasn’t my kind of music. It actually sucked! But I liked her.”

“She’d call and ask: ‘Could you come to Warsaw for one concert one night?’ I’d walk down the stairs from the plane – this is before jetports – and she’d be standing there wearing a Dior scarf, with a bottle of vodka, pouring me a drink. Right there in the snow!”

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Over the next years, the renowned songwriter would go on to leave his stamp on Hollywood, penning more than 500 songs throughout his lengthy career, assisting huge, record-breaking performers like Dionne Warwick in breaking through to stardom, and penning the scores for some of the most cherished films.