Leni Riefenstahl: Controversial Filmmaker of Triumph of the Will Dies at

Leni Riefenstahl was a German filmmaker, actress and photographer, famous and infamous for her Nazi-era propaganda films. Born on August 22, 1902, in Berlin, she started as a dancer and actress in mountain films.

She directed The Blue Light (1932), then Triumph of the Will (1935), a film about the Nazi Party rally in Nuremberg, and Olympia (1938), a landmark documentary on the 1936 Olympics praised for its techniques. After the war she was classified as a "fellow traveller" and never charged.

Later in life she became a photographer, producing books on the Nuba people of Sudan, and a scuba diver. She married Horst Kettner in 2003. She died at her home in Poecking, Germany, on September 8, 2003, at age 101.

Achievements: Triumph of the Will (1935), Olympia (1938), Nuba photography.

Birth: August 22, 1902 - Berlin, Germany.

Profession: Filmmaker and photographer.

Interesting Facts: Olympia was among the first documentaries to use tracking shots and heavy slow motion.