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Name: Maximilian Schell
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Date of Birth:
December 08, 1930
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Place of Birth:
Vienna, Austria
Mini-bio:
Maximilian Schell may not be a household name, but he is internationally respected, particularly in Europe, as an award-winning actor/director of stage and screen. He was born in Vienna, Austria, on D... read moreecember 8, 1930, but raised in Switzerland after his parents, Swiss author/poet Hermann Ferdinand Schell and Austrian actress Margarethe Noe von Nordberg, fled there to escape the effects of Nazi Germany's forcible annexation of Austria in 1938. As a young man, Schell studied at three universities -- Zurich, Basel, and Munich -- before making his professional stage debut in 1952. In 1955, he appeared in his first film, Kinder, Mütter und ein General. He next debuted on Broadway and then in Hollywood, playing a German officer who befriends fellow soldier Marlon Brando in The Young Lions (1958). Schell earned an Oscar in 1961 for his intriguing performance as a defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg, and would subsequently be nominated for Oscars for his work in The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and Julia (1977). In 1968, he produced Das Schloss (The Castle) and made his feature film directorial/screenwriting debut with Erste Liebe (First Love) in 1970. The latter film earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Film, as did his 1973 effort Der Fussgänger. The latter also won him a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. As a director and producer, Schell distinguished himself on the international stage with productions such as the remarkable Tales From the Vienna Woods and the modern opera Coronet. In addition to film and stage work, he has occasionally worked on television, winning a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Lenin in the HBO miniseries Stalin (1992) and additional acclaim for his work in Peter the Great (1986) and Joan of Arc (1999). Since the late '80s, Schell's screen appearances became sporadic, and he rarely branched out from acting. Notable films from the '90s included a rare comic role opposite Marlon Brando in The Freshman (1990), a dramatic turn as a stern patriarch in screenwriter Joe Eszterhas' autobiographical Telling Lies in America (1997), Tea Leoni's father in Deep Impact (1998), and a cardinal in John Carpenter's Vampires (1998). When not busying himself on stage, screen, and television, he has distinguished himself as a concert pianist and conductor. He has performed with Claudio Abado, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony, and Leonard Bernstein. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Maximilian Schell mini-bio: Maximilian Schell is an Academy Award-winning Austrian actor in over 92 film/TV roles, as well as writer, director and producer of several films. His late elder sister, Maria Schell, was also an actress, as are his two other far less well-known siblings, Carl and Immy (Immaculata) Schell. Born in Vienna and raised in Zurich, Switzerland, he made his Hollywood debut in 1958 in the World War II film The Young Lions. In 1961, he took the role of the defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a role he had initiated in a live television performance. Year 1974's The Pedestrian, which Schell wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Schell has refused to be typecast. Although he was top billed in a number of Nazi-era themed films as The Man in the Glass Booth, A Bridge Too Far, Cross of Iron, The Odessa File, Julia, and Judgment at Nuremberg, he has also appeared in Topkapi, The Black Hole, The Freshman, Stalin, Deep Impact, Candles in the Dark, and Erste Liebe.
Among fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Schell is best known for his appearance in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark, a German language version of Hamlet screened on the show.
Schell has also served as a writer, producer and director for a variety of films, including the documentary Marlene with the participation of Marlene Dietrich that won several awards. In 2002 he released My Sister Maria, a documentary about the career of and his relationship with Maria Schell.
