Leni Stengel

Leni Stengel, born Magdalene Riechers, (12 September 1901 – 1 July 1982) was a German-born American actress and singer who appeared on stage, television, and in films, from the 1920s through the 1950s. Born in Oldenburg in 1901, she immigrated to the United States in 1906 and later became a naturalized American citizen after her marriage to the film director Boris Ingster in 1930. She had previously been married to the American cartoonist Hans Stengel who committed suicide two years after their divorce in 1926. Her marriage to Ingster also ended in divorce in 1937. She was later married to Robert A. Scott from 1938 until Scott's death in 1956.

Stengel made her stage debut in 1920 under the name Madeline Richers as part of the sextette of chorus girls in the 1920 Broadway musical revival of Florodora. After this she went to Europe where she studied singing and performed in musicals, variety theatre, and in nightclubs. In 1925 she toured in vaudeville in the B. F. Keith Circuit, and then appeared in several Broadway shows in the late 1920s. She also worked as a nightclub singer in New York and Atlantic City. In 1929 she made the transition into film with the role of Lady Roberts in the Warner Bros.'s German-language feature The Royal Box. She was under contract with RKO Radio Pictures from 1930-1933 during which time she also was loaned out by them for several films made with Paramount Pictures among other Hollywood studios. She ended her film career in 1934 making two short films with Shemp Howard for Warner Bros.

After her film career ceased, Stengel continued to perform as a stage actress. She also worked in American television in the early 1950s. She died in New York City in 1982 at the age of 80.