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Maximilian Schell 1930 - 2014

Maximilian Schell was born on December 8, 1930 at Vienna, Austria,, and died at age 83 years old on February 1, 2014 in Innsbruck, Tyrol Austria. Family, friend, or fan, this family history biography is for you to remember Maximilian Schell.

Maximilian Schell

December 8, 1930

Vienna, Austria,

February 1, 2014

Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria

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Maximilian Schell Maximilian Schell (1930 - 2014)

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Maximilian Schell's History: 1930 - 2014

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Introduction

Famous Austrian-born actor and director. 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 pharmacy owner. His parents were Roman Catholic. Schell's father was never enthusiastic about young Maximilian becoming an actor like his mother, feeling that it could not lead to "real happiness". However, Schell was surrounded by acting in his early youth: I grew up in a theatre atmosphere and took it for granted. I remember the theatre, as a child, the way most people remember their mother's cooking. People acting was all around me, and so was poetry. I made my debut in the theatre at the age of three, in Vienna . . . The Schell family was forced to flee Vienna in 1938 to get "away from Hitler" after the Anschluss when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany. They resettled in Zurich, Switzerland. In Zurich, Schell "grew up reading the classics", and when he was ten, wrote his first play. Schell recalls that as a child, growing up surrounded by the theatre, he took acting for granted and did not want to become an actor at first: "What I wanted was to become a painter, a musician, or a playwright", like his father. Schell later attended the University of Zurich for a year, where he also played soccer and was on the rowing team, along with writing for newspapers as a part-time journalist for income. Following the end of World War II, he moved to Germany where he enrolled in the University of Munich and studied philosophy and art history. During breaks, he would sometimes return home to Zurich or stay at his family's farm in the country so he could write in seclusion: My father and my uncle hunt deer there, but I do not like to hunt. I like to walk through the forest by myself. In 1948 and 1949, when I wrote part of my first novel, which I have never shown to anyone, I isolated myself in one of the hunting cabins for three months, without a telephone, without electricity, with heat only from a large open fireplace. Schell then returned to Zurich, where he served in the Swiss Army for a year, after which he re-entered the University of Zurich for another year, and later, the University of Basel for six months. During that period, he acted professionally in small parts, in both classical and modern plays, and decided that he would from then on to devote his life to acting rather than to pursuing academic studies: I then decided, either you are a scientist or an artist. . . . To me it is much more important . . . to admire and feel and be stimulated and inspired. So as soon as I made up my mind, there was no sense anymore in continuing to study and in getting a degree. It is like an award; it does not mean anything in itself. . . . A university degree is just a title. I don't think an artist should have a title. It was time for me to concentrate on acting. Schell began acting at the Basel Theatre. Schell's late elder sister, Maria Schell, was also an actress, as were their two siblings, Carl (1927–2019) and Immaculata "Immy" Schell (1935–1992).
12/8

1930

Birthday

December 8, 1930

Birthdate

Vienna, Austria,

Birthplace

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Ethnicity & Family History

Maximilian was 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 pharmacy owner.
Early Life & Education

Maximilian Schell's family left Austria in 1938. They moved to Zurich, Switzerland where he was raised. While he was a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zurich. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting or directing full-time. He appeared in numerous German films, often anti-war, before moving on to Hollywood.
Religious Beliefs

His parents were Roman Catholic. he was very spiritual judging from his love of freedom and Democracy, two topics he covered as an actor and as a director.
Military Service

He was in the Swiss Army for a year.
Professional Career

His range of acting went beyond German characters, however; and during his career, he also played personalities as diverse as Venezuelan leader Simón Bolívar, Russian emperor Peter the Great, and physicist Albert Einstein. For his role as Vladimir Lenin in the television film Stalin (1992) he won the Golden Globe Award. On stage, Schell acted in a number of plays, and his was considered "one of the greatest Hamlets ever." Schell was an accomplished pianist and conductor, performing with Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein, and with orchestras in Berlin and Vienna. His elder sister, Maria Schell, was also an internationally noted actress, about whom he produced the documentary My Sister Maria, in 2002.
02/1

2014

Death

February 1, 2014

Death date

Unknown
Cause of death

Innsbruck, Tyrol Austria
Death location

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Obituary

Maximilian Schell, Oscar-Winning Actor in ‘Nuremberg,’ Dies at 83 By Anita Gates Feb. 1, 2014 Maximilian Schell, the ruggedly handsome Austrian-born actor who won an Academy Award for his role in “Judgment at Nuremberg,” died early Saturday in Innsbruck, Austria. He was 83. Patricia Baumbauer, his agent, confirmed his death to The Associated Press. She said he was hospitalized for a “sudden illness” but gave no more details. Stanley Kramer’s “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961), a drama recounting the Nazi war-crime trials in Germany, had an all-star cast, including Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift. But Mr. Schell’s performance as the eloquent and ultimately furious German defense lawyer was the only one honored by the Academy. The film had begun on TV on “Playhouse 90.” Mr. Schell won his Oscar in 1962. He went on to earn two more Oscar nominations, for the title role in “The Man in the Glass Booth” (1975), a drama inspired by the trial in Israel of the Holocaust criminal Adolf Eichmann, and “Julia” (1977), based on a Lillian Hellman story about the underground in Nazi Germany. In the late 1960s, Mr. Schell became a director. Two of his films — “The Pedestrian” (1973), about a German businessman’s wartime past, and “Marlene” (1984), a documentary about Marlene Dietrich — received Oscar nominations. He also went on to direct opera, including “Der Rosenkavalier” for the Los Angeles Opera in 2005. Mr. Schell acknowledged that his career had perhaps been dominated by Nazi-era subjects and characters and that he had been typecast. He was also an SS captain in “The Odessa File” (1974); a Nazi officer in two 1977 films, “A Bridge Too Far” and “Cross of Iron”; and a Nazi captain, alongside Marlon Brando, in “The Young Lions” (1958), his American film debut. “There does seem to be a pattern” in his films, Mr. Schell said in a 1975 interview with the film critic Roger Ebert, adding later, “I think there’s an area of subject matter here that has to be faced and seriously dealt with.” He was the younger brother of Maria Schell, an international film star who died in 2005. The Third Reich was part of his own experience. Maximilian Schell was born in Vienna on Dec. 8, 1930, one of four children of Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss-born playwright and pharmacy owner, and the former Margarethe Noé von Nordberg, an Austrian actress. The family, Roman Catholic, moved to Zurich after 1938. Mr. Schell made his film debut in “Kinder, Mütter und ein General” (“Children, Mother, and a General,” 1955) and appeared in several other West German films before leaving in 1958 for the United States, where his sister Maria Schell was already building a Hollywood movie career. Mr. Schell’s acting roles did go well beyond World War II and Germany. He played Lenin in “Stalin,” a 1992 television film; and the title character in “Peter the Great,” a 1986 mini-series. He also appeared in the films “Topkapi” (1964), about a jewel theft in Turkey; “The Freshman,” a 1990 Mafia comedy; and “Deep Impact” (1998), a comet-disaster movie. He did three plays on Broadway; his debut was “Interlock” (1958), with Rosemary Harris. His last film, “Les Brigands,” a multinational production filmed in French, is in postproduction. Mr. Schell married Natalya Andreychenko, a Russian actress, in 1985; they divorced in 2005. His survivors include Iva Mihanovic, a German-Croatian soprano, whom he married in August; and a daughter, Nastassja Schell, from his first marriage. Maria Schell died in 2005. Ultimately, Mr. Schell evolved into an international character actor — distinguished and perhaps a bit world-weary. “The world doesn’t change. The balance of evil will always be the same,” he said in an interview with The New York Times in 2001, when he was preparing to appear in a stage version of “Judgment at Nuremberg.” “I think all the poets and artists have always written for peace and love, and it hasn’t changed much in the last two or three thousand years. But we hope.”

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