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Born December 8, 1930 in Vienna, Austria, but raised in Zurich, Switzerland where his family fled after Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, Maximilian Schell was perhaps the most famous of all non-English speaking born actors in Hollywood history. He was the second child of an actress mother and poet father. He and his three siblings, older sister Maria, older brother Carl and younger sister Immy, all became actors. Maria, who entered films in 1942, was for a time the most celebrated actor in the family with BAFTA nominated performances in 1953’s The Heart of the Matter and 1956’s Gervaise. Max did not enter films until 1955.

A Shakespearean trained actor, Schell had great success with Richard III in Germany before making his film debut in the German anti-Nazi film, Children, Mothers and a General. He came to the U.S. for the Broadway play, Interlock in early 1958, the same year he made his Hollywood debut in The Young Lions. In 1959, he played the defense attorney in the Playhouse 90 TV production of Judgment at Nuremberg. More American TV work followed, with time out for a return to Germany to film Hamlet, which was released in the U.S. in 1962 after Schell’s Oscar win for the 1961 film version of Judgment at Nuremberg, which was only his second Hollywood film.

Schell’s post-Oscar film successes included Five Finger Exercise, The Reluctant Saint, Topkapi, Return from the Ashes and The Deadly Affair. His first film as a director was 1970’s First Love. His 1973 West German film, The Pedestrian was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

In 1974, Schell played a former Nazi in commandant in The Odessa File, while his sister Maria played the mother of star Jon Voight. In 1975, he starred in the film version of Robert Shaw’s 1968 Broadway play, The Man in the Glass Booth earning an Oscar nomination in the role that won Donald Pleasance a Tony.

Now a distinguished character actor, Schell earned his third Oscar nomination for 1977’s Julia in support of Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. His acclaimed 1984 documentary, Marlene was nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature, but like the nomination for The Pedestrian, the nomination went to the film’s producers, not the director.

Schell was married for the first time in 1985, at age 54, to 29-year-old Russian-born actress Natalia Andreychenko. They had a daughter, actress Natassja Schell, born in 1989. They were divorced in 2005. In 2013, at age 82, he married 35-year-old German actress Iva Mahanovic.

Schell’s later films included The Assisi Underground, Little Odessa, Deep Impact and the 2002 documentary, My Sister Maria. He died of pneumonia after a brief illness on February 1, 2014 at the age of 83.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG (1961), directed by Stanley Kramer

Schell made TV audiences sit up and take notice of his German defense attorney in the 1959 Playhouse 90 production co-starring Claude Rains, Paul Lukas, Melvyn Douglas and Celia Lovsky in the roles played in the 1961 film by Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark and Marlene Dietrich. With Montgomery Clift and Judy Garland in brilliant cameos, he was the least well-known of the film’s major stars, but the one who took home the Oscar for his portrayal of the shameless German attorney who defends four Nazi judges of war crimes. He played the Lukas/Lancaster role of one of the judges in the 2001 Broadway version of the play.

THE MAN IN THE GLASS BOOTH (1975), directed by Arthur Hiller

A virulent anti-Nazi in real life, Schell was often cast as an unregenerate Nazi in films. One of his most brilliant portrayals was that of a Holocaust survivor, a wealthy Jewish industrialist living in luxury in a Manhattan high-rise with delusions of having been a Nazi commandant. He is kidnapped by the Israelis and put on trial as a Nazi war criminal with witnesses testifying to his crimes, until one of them breaks down and admits the whole thing was a set-up by Schell himself. Actor Robert Shaw’s controversial novel and play was the only one of 14 productions of the American Film Theater from 1973-1975 to earn an Oscar nomination for its star.

JULIA (1977), directed by Fred Zinnemann

Schell’s third Oscar nomination came for another Nazi-era performance in this film based on Lillian Hellman’s Pentimento. Although his role is miniscule, he won a New York Film Critics award and a Golden Globe nomination prior to his Oscar nod for his one scene with Jane Fonda in which he gives her an envelope for Vanessa Redgrave. That was it, but such was the power of his acting in that one brief scene that it was enough. He also had major roles in two other Nazi-era films this year, Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron and Richard Attenborough’s all-star cast A Bridge Too Far.

MARLENE (1984), directed by Maximilian Schell

Still the most intriguing documentary film centered on a major performer, Schell’s Oscar nominated film is a fascinating look at the legendary Marlene Dietrich with whom Schell first worked in the 1961 film version of Judgment at Nuremberg. Dietrich, then 82, refused to be photographed, but did lend her inimitable voice to the soundtrack, responding to all his questions despite her obvious annoyance at some of them. She’s a hoot talking about such films as Destry Rides Again, Witness for the Prosecution, Touch of Evil and her last, Just a Gigolo.

MY SISTER MARIA (2002), directed by Maximilian Schell

No Oscar nomination this time around, but the Chicago International Film Festival did nominate Schell’s moving tribute to his no less famous sister, Maria. As with Marlene, the film provides generous clips from Maria’s career, as well as discussions about her co-stars which included Gary Cooper (her favorite), Marlon Brando and Oskar Werner. Schell avoids discussions about his sister’s then tabloid documented mental dementia and poverty, instead concentrating on the restoration of their childhood home where she later died in 2005 and he himself would die in 2014.

MAXIMILIAN SCHELL AND OSCAR

  • Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) – Oscar – Best Actor
  • The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) – nominated – Best Actor
  • Julia (1977) – nominated – Best Supporting Actor

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