Biography
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 December 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, All Movie Guide