Maximilian Schell, Biography, Family, Movies, Death, Widow, Awards, Books, News

Maximilian Schell Biography

Maximilian Schell was born on 8 December 1930 and died on 1 February 2014. He was an Austrian-born; Swiss film and stage actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood. Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by acting and literature. 

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.

Schell was top billed in a number of Nazi-era themed films, as he could speak both English and German. Among those were two films for which he received Oscar nominations: The Man in the Glass Booth in 1975 as the best actor, where he played a character with two identities, and Julia in1977 as best supporting actor, where he helps the underground in Nazi Germany.

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 scientist Albert Einstein. For his role as Vladimir Lenin in the television film Stalin in 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.”

In Schell’s private life, he 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 a noted Hollywood actress, about whom he produced the documentary My Sister Maria, in 2002.

Maximilian Schell Family

• Hermann Ferdinand Schell                                                                             Father
• Margarete Schell Noe                                                                                       Mother
• Iva Mihanovic                                                                                                    Spouse
• Oliver Schell                                                                                                       Nephew
• Immy Schell                                                                                                       Sister
• Carl Schell                                                                                                          Brother
• Nastassja Schell                                                                                                Daughter
• Natalya Andrejchenko                                                                                     Former Spouse
• Maria Schell                                                                                                       Sister
• Marie-Theres Relin                                                                                          Niece

Maximilian Schell Movies

Title	Year	Role	Notes
Kinder, Mütter und ein General	1955	Deserteur
The Plot to Assassinate Hitler	1955	Member of the Kreisau Circle
Ripening Youth	1955	Jürgen Sengebusch
The Girl from Flanders	1956	Alexander Haller
The Marriage of Doctor Danwitz	1956	Dr. Oswald Hauser
A Heart Returns Home	1956	Wolfgang Thomas
The Last Ones Shall Be First	1957	Lorenz Darrandt
The Young Lions	1958	Captain Hardenberg
Ein wunderbarer Sommer	1958	Josef Ospel
Hamlet	1961	Hamlet	Television film. Used in an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000
Judgment at Nuremberg	1961	Hans Rolfe	Academy Award for Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role Nominated – Laurel Award for Top Male Dramatic Performance
Five Finger Exercise	1962	Walter
The Condemned of Altona	1962	Franz von Gerlach
The Reluctant Saint	1962	Giuseppe
Topkapı	1964	Walter Harper
Return from the Ashes	1965	Stanislaus Pilgrin
The Doctor and the Devil	1965
The Deadly Affair	1966	Dieter Frey
The Desperate Ones	1967	Marek
Counterpoint	1967	General Schiller
The Castle	1968	‘K.’
Heidi	1968	Richard Sessemann	Television film
Krakatoa, East of Java	1968	Captain Hanson
Simón Bolívar	1969	Simón Bolívar
Erste Liebe	1970	Father	San Sebastián International Film Festival Silver Seashell Nominated – Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
Paulina 1880 (fr)	1972	Michele Cantarini
Pope Joan	1972	Adrian
The Pedestrian	1973	Andreas Giese	Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film Nominated – Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film
The Odessa File	1974	Eduard Roschmann
The Rehearsal	1974
The Man in the Glass Booth	1975	Arthur Goldman	Nominated – Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
Der Richter und sein Henker	1975	Robert Schmied on Audiotape	Voice, Uncredited role San Sebastián International Film Festival Silver Seashell
The Day That Shook the World	1975	Djuro Sarac
St. Ives	1976	Dr. John Constable
Cross of Iron	1977	Hauptmann von Stransky
A Bridge Too Far	1977	SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SSWilhelm Bittrich
Julia	1977	Johann	New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated – National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
Players	1979	Marco
Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald	1979	Theatre Visitor	Uncredited
Avalanche Express	1979	Col. Nikolai Bunin
Together?	1979	Giovanni
The Black Hole	1979	Dr. Hans Reinhardt
The Diary of Anne Frank	1980	Otto Frank	Television film
Arch of Triumph	1980
The Chosen	1981	Professor David Malter
The Phantom of the Opera (de)	1983	Sándor Korvin/The Phantom of the Opera	Television film
Les Îles (fr)	1983	Fabrice
Man Under Suspicion	1984	Lawyer Landau
The Assisi Underground	1985	Col. Müller	Television film 175 minutes
Peter the Great	1986	Peter the Great	TV miniseries
Laughter in the Dark	1986
An American Place	1988	Alfred Steiglitz
The Rose Garden	1989	Aaron
The Freshman	1990	Larry London
Young Catherine		Frederick the Great
Miss Rose White	1992	Mordecai Weiss	Television film Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
Stalin	1992	Vladimir Lenin	Television film CableACE Award for Supporting Actor in a Movie or Miniseries Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film Nominated – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
A Far Off Place	1993	Colonel Mopani Theron
Justice	1993	Isaak Kohler
Candles in the Dark	1993	Colonel Arkush	Television film Also director
Abraham	1994	Pharaoh	Television film
Little Odessa	1994	Arkady Shapira
The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years	1996	Cardinal Vittorio	TV miniseries
The Vampyre Wars	1996	Rodan
Through Roses	1997	Carl Stern
Telling Lies in America	1997	Dr. Istvan Jonas
The Eighteenth Angel	1998	Father Simeon
Left Luggage	1998	Mr. Silberschmidt
Vampires	1998	Cardinal Alba
Deep Impact	1998	Jason Lerner
Joan of Arc	1999	Brother Jean le Maistre	TV miniseries
Wer liebt, dem wachsen Flügel…	1999	Hochberg
I Love You, Baby	2000	Walter Ekland
Fisimatenten	2001	Poser
Festival in Cannes	2001	Viktor Kovner
Coast to Coast	2003	Casimir	Television film
The House of Sleeping Beauties	2006	Kogi
The Shell Seekers	2006	Lawrence Sterne	TV miniseries
The Brothers Bloom	2008	Diamond Dog
Flores negras	2009	Jacob Krinsten
Les brigands	2015	Mr. Escher	(final film role; filmed in 2013)

Maria Schell

Maria Schell

She is a sister to Maximilian Schell.

Actor Maximilian Schell

Schell’s film debut was in the German anti-war film Kinder, Mütter und ein General entailing of Children, Mothers, and a General in 1955. It was the story of five mothers who confronted a German general at the front line, after learning that their sons, some as young as 15, had been “slated to be cannon fodder on behalf of the Third Reich.”The film co-starred Klaus Kinski as an officer, with Schell playing the part of an officer-deserter.

The story, which according to one critic, “depicts the insanity of continuing to fight a war that is lost,” would become a “trademark” for many of Schell’s future roles: “Schell’s sensitivity in his portrayal of a young deserter disillusioned with fighting became a trademark of his acting.”

Schell subsequently acted in seven more films made in Europe before going to the U.S. Among those was The Plot to Assassinate Hitler in 1955. Later in the same year he had a supporting role in Jackboot Mutiny, in which he plays “a sensitive philosopher,” who uses ethics to privately debate the arguments for assassinating Hitler.

In 1958 Schell was invited to the United States to act in the Broadway play, “Interlock” by Ira Levin, in which Schell played the role of an aspiring concert pianist. He made his Hollywood debut in the World War II film, The Young Lions in 1958, as the commanding German officer in another anti-war story, with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift. German film historian Robert C. Reimer writes that the film, directed by Edward Dmytryk, again drew on Schell’s powerful German characterisation to “portray young officers disillusioned with a war that no longer made sense.”

In 1960, Schell returned to Germany and played the title role in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet for German TV, a role that he would play on two more occasions in live theatre productions during his career. Along with Laurence Olivier, Schell is considered “one of the greatest Hamlets ever,” according to some. Schell’s performance of Hamlet was featured as one of the last episodes of the American comedy series Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 1999.

Maximilian Schell Child

 

In 1985  Maximilian  met the Russian actress Natalya Andrejchenko, whom he married in June 1986. They had  their only daughter,  Nastassja,  in 1989.

Maximilian Schell Wife

During the 1960s Schell had a three-year-long affair with Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiari who was the  former wife of the last Shah of Iran. In 1985 he met the Russian actress Natalya Andrejchenko, whom he married in June 1986 with whom they had their daughter, Nastassja,in 1989.After 2002 he separated from his wife and later divorced in 2005.

Schell later had a relationship with the Austrian art historian Elisabeth Michitsch. From 2008 he was romantically involved with German opera singer Iva Mihanovic and eventually married on 20 August 2013.

Maximilian Schell Death

Schell died at age 83 on 1 February 2014, in Innsbruck, Austria after a “sudden and serious illness”. The German television news service Tagesschau reported that he had been receiving treatment for pneumonia. His grave is in Preitenegg/Carinthia in Austria where the family home was and where he and his sister lived until the end.

Maximilian Schell Widow

Iva Mihanovic is the widow to the late Maximilian who passed on just a year after teir wedding. They had been dating since 2008 and later married in 20, August 2013.

Iva Schell with her late husband Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell Awards

1961: Won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the American film “Judgment at Nuremberg”.
1965: Ondas Award asa the Best Actor
1979: Golden Hugo Award for Tales from the Vienna Woods
1980: German Film Award in Silver in 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 in 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 as the 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

Maximilian Schell Sisters

Maximilian had two sisters:

• Immy Schell
• Maria Schell

Maximilian Schell Weltstars Movie

Maximilian Schell Net Worth

Maximilian Schell made money through Actors niche. At the moment Maximilian Schell is worth $90 Million.

 Maximilian Schell Marlene

Marlene Dietrich and Maximilian Schell had worked together on Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961. Dietrich had become a virtual recluse in her Paris apartment on the Avenue Montaigne. Schell tried to persuade her for years to participate in a documentary about her life. She continuously refused.

In 1982, she eventually agreed to participate in the project on condition that she did not appear. The film therefore consists of an audio commentary and the visuals illustrate her career by showing film clips and stills from her films, as well as newsreel footage. She was contracted for “40 hours of talking” as she reminds Schell during one of their exchanges.

The film consists of voice interviews between Schell and Dietrich in which she often ignores his questions, makes acerbic comments about, among other things, some of the people she has worked with and some of the books written about her life and films. In the process, she touches on the subjects of life and death, reality and illusion and the nature of stardom.

 

Maximilian Schell Funeral

Ghostly atmosphere in the slightly glistening fog: the funeral procession for Maximilian Schell in front of the cemetery of Preitenegg.

It is ghostly quiet, although the village street is lined with friends and fans. Then two headlights are blazing through the snow-covered laundry room. It is the lights of the hearse with the coffin of the deceased.
The black Mercedes stops for a few minutes in front of the small cemetery, where Schells 2005 deceased sister Maria is, disappears in the fog and drives over the roses that were scattered on the street.
The valley to Wolfsberg to the crematorium. As the fog swallows the car, the whole village claps like a final applause. “Now it goes to infinity,” softly whispers mourning Elisabeth Wicki-Endriss. In spring, Maximilian Schell’s ashes are to be buried under his favorite tree, a maple in front of his alp, where he also gave the yes-word to Iva.

Hermann Ferdinand Schell

He was the father to Maximilian Schell and died in 1972.

Maximilian Schell Books

• Der Rebell
• Ich fliege Uber dunkle Taler
• Max Frisch Friedrich
  Briefwechsel

Maximilian Schell Height

He is 5 ft 11 (180.3 cm) tall.

Maximilian Schell Photos

Heidi Maximilian Schell

Heidi is a 1968 NBC made-for-TV film version of the 1880 novel of the same name by Johanna Spyri which debuted on November 17, 1968. It starred actress Jennifer Edwards, stepdaughter of Julie Andrews and daughter of Blake Edwards, in the title role, alongside Maximilian Schell, Jean Simmons, and Michael Redgrave. The score was composed by John Williams. The film was sponsored by Timex.

Maximilian News

Maximilian Schell († 83)
His widow: “I ask of your heart for your understanding”

5 August 2016

The allegations against Iva Schell do not stop. She betrayed Maximilian Schell († 83), claims his daughter Nastassja. Iva Schell comments on the allegations.

It’s a real family drama. The great actor Maximilian Schell († 83) leaves at his death two years ago widow Iva aged 37 and daughter Nastassja aged 26 . Widow Iva is expecting a baby from Kari Noé aged 47who is the grand cousin of Maximilian, who will be born shortly . But Nastassja can not be happy for the widow. “Iva was unfaithful! I do not just think so, I’m convinced of that. There is evidence, “she says in an interview.

She has repeatedly raised these allegations in the media. But she does not provide evidence. However, she does not give a good hair to Iva, who has spread from the beginning “lies and bad mood” in the family.

Allegations that make Iva Schell speechless . Since 2008 she was dating Maximilian, on August 20, 2013, the two married. Until Schell’s sudden death on February 1, 2014, Iva was always at his side, he seemed happy. She does not want to deal with Nastassja’s views. ” I am close to the birth of my daughter and I would like, as one and a half years ago, do not have to defend against these allegations,” says Iva Schell, emphasizing: “It is really so regrettable that stories are made about the already in March 2015 was reported. ”

She is looking forward to her first child. “For my good and that of my daughter, I will therefore give no interviews and further statements on these topics. I ask of your heart for your understanding! ”

She had stated that she is no longer upset by every headline. “Since the moment I became Maximilian Schell’s partner, I have become accustomed to writing about much that has happened in my life,” she said. “There has been and there is almost everything in this context about controversial opinions in society, but ultimately it is my life alone and I have to stand behind everything I do and for me and my closest people, it has to be right. I do not read everything anymore and do not worry so much about what others might think. ”

Admirable attitude of the widow!