Almost immediately upon hearing of John Gilbert's status as an all-but-forgotten matinee idol now drinking himself to death, new-to-Hollywood screen siren Marlene Dietrich devoted herself to the project of "rehabilitating" Gilbert. When she failed to save his life and he succumbed to a heart attack a few years later, Dietrich became a lifelong "guardian angel" to Gilbert's young daughter, always remembering the child on her birthday and Christmas every year until Dietrich died.
