Information about Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell
Maximilian Schell (left) in the film Judgment at Nuremberg
Born	November 8 1930 (1930--) (age 78) Vienna, Austria
Spouse(s)	Natalya Andrejchenko (1985-)
Awards Academy Awards Best Actor 1961 Judgment at Nuremberg Golden Globe Awards Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama 1962 Judgment at Nuremberg 1993 Stalin

Maximilian Schell (born December 8, 1930) is an Academy Award-winning Austrian actor who has appeared in over 92 film/television roles. He is also a writer, director and producer of several films.

Biography

Early life

Schell was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Margarethe (née Noe von Nordberg), an actress, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a poet, writer, and owner of a pharmacy.^[1] Schell's late elder sister, Maria Schell, was also an actress, as are his two other far less well-known siblings, Carl and Immy (Immaculata) Schell. Schell's family moved to Zurich, Switzerland in 1938, where Schell later served in the Swiss Army, achieving the rank of corporal. He began acting at the Basel Theater.^[2]

Career

Schell made his Hollywood debut in 1958 in the World War II film The Young Lions. In 1961, he took the role of the defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a role he had initiated in a live television performance. Year 1974's The Pedestrian, which Schell wrote, produced, directed, and starred in, was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

Schell has refused to be typecast. Although he was top billed in a number of Nazi-era themed films as The Man in the Glass Booth, A Bridge Too Far, Cross of Iron, The Odessa File, Julia, and Judgment at Nuremberg, he has also appeared in Topkapi, The Black Hole, The Freshman, Stalin, Deep Impact, Candles in the Dark, and Erste Liebe. 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 mini-series 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, and in 2006 he appeared in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues directed by Robert Altman in London at the Old Vic.^[3] Schell has also served as a writer, producer and director for a variety of films, including the documentary Marlene with the participation of Marlene Dietrich that won several awards. In 2002 he released My Sister Maria, a documentary about the career of and his relationship with Maria Schell.

Among fans of Mystery Science Theater 3000, Schell is known for his appearance in Hamlet, Prinz von Dänemark, a German language version of Hamlet screened on the show.

The Most Interesting Man in the World

Schell is currently starring as "The Most Interesting Man in the World," a series of beer commercials for Dos Equis.

Personal life

In 2000, he collapsed and was diagnosed with pancreatitis related to his diabetes. At the time, he was starring on Broadway in the premiere of the stage version of Judgment at Nuremberg, changing roles from the defense lawyer to the lead judge on trial for crimes against humanity.

In the mid 1960s, Schell reportedly was engaged to marry the African American fashion model Donyale Luna, though the wedding never happened. He did marry famous Russian actress Natalia Andreichenko, whom he met on the set of Peter the Great. They have one daughter, Anastasia Schell, born in 1989.

Schell is the godfather of Angelina Jolie, daughter of Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand.

Filmography

• The Young Lions (1958)
• Judgment at Nuremberg (1961)
• The Reluctant Saint (1962)
• Topkapi (1964)
• Heidi (1968)
• Krakatoa, East of Java (1969)
• Erste Liebe (1971)
• The Odessa File (1974)
• Der Richter und sein Henker (1975)
• Cross of Iron (1976)
• Julia (1977)
• A Bridge Too Far (1977)
• The Black Hole (1979)
• The Chosen (1981)
• The Phantom of the Opera (1983)
• Peter the Great (1986)
• The Freshman (1990)
• Young Catherine (1991)
• Little Odessa (1994)
• The Eighteenth Angel (1996)
• John Carpenter's Vampires (1998)
• Deep Impact (1998)
• Coast to Coast (2004)

Academy Awards and nominations

• 1978 - Nominated - Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Julia
• 1976 - Nominated Best Actor in a Leading Role - The Man in the Glass Booth
• 1961 - Won Best Actor in a Leading Role - Judgment at Nuremberg

Awards
Preceded by Burt Lancaster for Elmer Gantry	Academy Award for Best Actor 1961 for Judgment at Nuremberg	Succeeded by Gregory Peck forTo Kill a Mockingbird
Preceded by Burt Lancaster for Elmer Gantry	NYFCC Award for Best Actor 1961 for Judgment at Nuremberg	Succeeded by Albert Finney for Tom Jones

References

External links

• Maximilian Schell at the Internet Movie Database