Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell was born on 8 December 1930 in Vienna, Austria, the son of Margarethe Schell, an actress who operated an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright, and pharmacy owner. His siblings Maria, Carl, and Immy Schell all pursued acting as well. In 1938, following the Anschluss in which Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, the family relocated to Zürich, Switzerland, where Schell spent much of his youth reading the classics and, at age ten, wrote his first play. He later studied at the University of Zurich, the University of Munich — where he focused on philosophy and art history — and subsequently at the University of Basel for six months. During that period he began acting professionally in small parts before committing fully to a performance career, starting at the Basel Theatre.

Schell made his film debut in the German anti-war production Kinder, Mütter und ein General in 1955, playing a young officer-deserter. That same year he appeared in The Plot to Assassinate Hitler and in Jackboot Mutiny. He went on to act in several additional European films before traveling to the United States, where he made his Hollywood debut in The Young Lions in 1958, playing the commanding German officer opposite Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.

His Broadway career spanned from 1958 to 2001. Schell first appeared on Broadway in Interlock in 1958, playing the role of an aspiring concert pianist in the play by Ira Levin. He subsequently starred in Judgment at Nuremberg and in A Patriot for Me. His final Broadway work earned him a Drama Desk Award nomination for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play in 2001.

On screen, Schell won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as a lawyer in the film adaptation of Judgment at Nuremberg in 1961. He received additional Academy Award nominations for The Man in the Glass Booth in 1975 and for Julia in 1977. His film credits across several decades include Topkapi, The Deadly Affair, Counterpoint, Simón Bolívar, The Odessa File, A Bridge Too Far, and Deep Impact. He made his directorial debut with the period romantic drama First Love in 1970 and received three nominations for the German Film Award for Best Director over the course of his career.

On television, Schell portrayed Otto Frank in The Diary of Anne Frank in 1980, the Russian emperor Peter the Great in the NBC series Peter the Great in 1986, Frederick the Great in the British series Young Catherine in 1991, and Brother Jean le Maistre in the miniseries Joan of Arc in 1999. His performance in the HBO television film Stalin in 1992 earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries or Television Film, and both Stalin and the NBC film Miss Rose White brought him Primetime Emmy Award nominations.

Beyond acting, Schell performed the title role in a German television production of Hamlet in 1960, a role he returned to in two subsequent live theatre productions. He was also an accomplished pianist and conductor who performed with Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein and with orchestras in Berlin and Vienna. In 2002 he directed the documentary My Sister Maria, a tribute to his elder sister, actress Maria Schell. He died on 1 February 2014.