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Early life:
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.
Schell was born Dec 08, 1930 in Vienna, Austria , the son of Margarethe (née Noe von Nordberg), an actress, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a poet, writer, and owner of a pharmacy. Schell's late elder sister, Maria Schell, was also an actress; as are their two other siblings, Carl and Immy (Immaculata) Schell. The Schell family moved to Zurich, Switzerland in 1938, where young Maximilian later served in the Swiss Army, achieving the rank of corporal. He began acting at the Basel Theater.
Career:
Schell made his Hollywood debut in 1958 in the World War II film The Young Lions. In 1959, he appeared as Hans Rolfe, the defense attorney, in a live Playhouse 90 television production of Judgment at Nuremberg. In 1961, he reprised the role, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor. In 1974's The Pedestrian, for which Schell wrote, produced, directed, and starred, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.
Schell produced and starred in the 1968 adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Castle" before graduating to full-blown auteur as director of "First Love" (1970), which he co-adapted from a story by Turgenev (as well as produced). The original, often moving story of young lovers, starring Dominique Sanda and John Moulder-Brown (and the director as Sanda's father), earned an Oscar nomination as Best Foreign Film, as did his next outing, "The Pedestrian" (1973). This time, the writer-producer-director revisited familiar terrain, telling the tale of a leading German industrialist exposed by a muckraking local newspaper as having ordered the massacre of a Greek village during the war, to which he contributed a fine performance as the accusatory son. Schell co-wrote "The End of the Game" (1976) with Friedrich Durrenmatt (from Durrenmatt's novel), helming the complex thriller about a dying police chief (played by director Martin Ritt) who has been trying for three decades to nail an omnipotent criminal (Robert Shaw). Following his well-received "Tales from the Vienna Woods/Geschichten aus dem Wiener Wald" (1979), he concluded his auteurship with the fascinating Oscar-nominated documentary, "Marlene" (1984), centered on an "interview" with Marlene Dietrich, in which the legendary star (who refused to appear on camera) continued to stage-manage her career with a combination of charm, guile and deliberate obfuscation.
Schell 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 Judgement at Nuremberg, he has also appeared in Topkapi, Krakatoa, East of Java, The Black Hole, The Freshman, Stalin, Deep Impact, Candles in the Dark, and Erste Liebe. Since the 1990s, Schell has appeared in many German language made-for-TV films, such as the 2003 film Alles Glück dieser Erde (All the Luck in the World) opposite Uschi Glas and in the mini-series The Return of the Dancing Master (2004), which was based on Henning Mankell's novel.
Those who are not familiar with his feature work may know him from his impressive body of TV credits in the 80s and 90s, beginning with his portrayal of Otto Frank in the NBC remake of "The Diary of Anne Frank" (1980). Schell painted a dandy scenery-chewing portrait of "The Phantom of the Opera" (CBS, 1983), was magnificent as "Peter the Great" in the 1986 Emmy-winning NBC miniseries and played Frederick the Great to Redgrave's Empress Elizabeth in "Young Catherine" (TNT, 1991). He bore an uncanny resemblance to Lenin in the HBO miniseries "Stalin" and garnered an Emmy nomination as Mordecai in the NBC "Hallmark Hall of Fame" presentation of "Miss Rose White" (both 1992). Some might remember him for his portrayal of Amado Guzman during the last season of "Wiseguy" (CBS, 1990), his only foray in series television, and he also appeared as Pharaoh in the TNT movie "Abraham" (1994) and as Cardinal Vittorio in the CBS miniseries "The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years" (1996). After a decade's absence from the director's chair, Schell helmed the Family Channel's "Candles in the Wind" (1993) but asked to have his name removed from the credits. This man of conscience continues to lend his dynamic presence to both the large and small screens, showing no signs of slowing up.
In addition to his international film career, Schell has been active as director, writer and actor in European theatre, making his stage debut in 1952, three years before his first cinematic role. In 1972 he starred as 'Deeley' in Peter Hall's German language premiére of Harold Pinter's Old Times at the Burgtheater in Vienna, and in 2006 he appeared in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues directed by Robert Altman in London at the Old Vic.
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).
Schell has also served as a writer, producer and director for a variety of films, including the documentary film Marlene (1984) 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.
Among fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Schell is known for starring in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark, a German language version of Hamlet screened on the show.
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.
Personal life:
In 2000, he collapsed and was diagnosed with pancreatitis related to his diabetes. At the time, he was starring on Broadway in the premiere of the stage version of Judgment at Nuremberg, changing roles from the defense lawyer to the lead judge on trial for crimes against humanity.
In the mid 1960s, Schell reportedly was engaged to marry the African American fashion model Donyale Luna, though the wedding never happened. He did marry famous Russian actress Natalya Andreychenko, whom he met on the set of Peter the Great. They have one daughter, Nastassja Schell, born in 1989. He lives in Austria with wife Elisabeth.
Schell is the godfather of Angelina Jolie, daughter of Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand.