Maximilian Schell Biography

Maximilian Schell (born 8 December 1930) is an Austrian-born Swiss actor who won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961. He is also a writer, director and producer of several films.

Early life

Schell was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Margarethe (née Noe von Nordberg), an actress who ran an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright, and owner of a pharmacy. His parents were Roman Catholics. 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 went on to serve in the Swiss Army, achieving the rank of corporal. He began acting at the Basel Theatre.

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 on film, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor as the first German speaking actor after World War II. 1974's The Pedestrian, which Schell wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

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; Counterpoint (1968); A Bridge Too Far; Cross of Iron; The Odessa File; Julia; and Judgment at Nuremberg, he also played more diverse characters in Simón Bolívar, Krakatoa, East of Java; The Black Hole; The Freshman; John Carpenter's Vampires; Topkapi; Stalin; Candles in the Dark; Erste Liebe; Deep Impact; and the television miniseries, Peter the Great (1986), which co-starred Vanessa Redgrave and Laurence Olivier.

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 television miniseries The Return of the Dancing Master (2004), which was based on Henning Mankell's novel.

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.

In 1977 he directed Tales from the Vienna Woods at the National Theatre in London. In 2006 he appeared in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues directed by Robert Altman in London at the Old Vic. 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 his late sister Maria Schell.

Filmography

Film	Date	Awards and nominations
Kinder, Mütter und ein General	1955
The Last Ones Shall Be First	1957
The Young Lions	1958
Judgment at Nuremberg	1961	Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance (2nd place) Nominated-BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
Five Finger Exercise	1961
The Reluctant Saint	1962
The Condemned of Altona	1962
Topkapi	1964
Return from the Ashes	1965
The Deadly Affair	1966
The Castle	1968
Counterpoint	1968
Heidi	1968
Simón Bolívar	1969
Krakatoa, East of Java	1969
Erste Liebe (First Love)	1971	San Sebastián International Film Festival Silver Seashell Nominated-Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Pope Joan (1972 film)	1972
The Pedestrian (film)	1973	Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominated-Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Odessa File	1974
The Day That Shook the World	1975
Der Richter und sein Henker	1975	San Sebastián International Film Festival Silver Seashell
The Man in the Glass Booth	1975	Nominated-Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
St. Ives	1976
Cross of Iron	1977
Julia	1977	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor (3rd place) Nominated-Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated-Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor
A Bridge Too Far	1977
Avalanche Express	1979
The Black Hole	1979
Together?	1979
The Diary of Anne Frank	1980
The Chosen	1981
The Phantom of the Opera	1983
Man Under Suspicion	1984
Peter the Great	1986
The Rosegarden	1989
The Freshman	1990
Young Catherine	1991
Candles In The Dark	1991
Stalin (1992 film)	1992	Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated for Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Justiz	1993
Candles in the Dark	1993
A Far Off Place	1993
Little Odessa	1994
Abraham	1994
The Eighteenth Angel	1996
The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years	1996
Left Luggage (film)	1998
John Carpenter's Vampires	1998
Deep Impact	1998
Joan of Arc	1999
I Love You, Baby	2000
Coast to Coast	2004
The Shell Seekers	2006
The House of Sleeping Beauties	2008
The Shell Seekers	2008
The Brothers Bloom	2008

Other awards and nominations

• 1965: Ondas Award (Best Actor)
• 1979: Golden Hugo Award for Tales from the Vienna Woods
• 1980: German Film Award in Silver (program-filling feature film) for Tales from the Vienna Woods
• 1984: German Film Award, Film Award for the role Morning in Alabama
• 1985: Golden Globe nomination (documentary) for Marlene
• 1985: Merit Cross 1st Class of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse)
• 1985: Nominated for Academy Award for Documentary Feature for Marlene
• 1990: Honorary Award of the German Film Award
• 1992: Emmy Award nomination (Best Actor) in the TV film Miss Rose White
• 1999: Method Fest for Lifetime Achievement
• 1999: Platinum Romy for Lifetime Achievement
• 2000: Satellite Award, Mary Pickford Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2002: Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art, 1st class
• 2002: Bambi Award
• 2006: Honorary Award of the Bavarian Film Awards for artistic mastery and humanism
• 2008: Diva Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2009: Premio Roma
• 2009: Bambi Award for Lifetime Achievement
• 2011: Honorary Award of the Bernhard Wicki Film Award - The Bridge