Maximilian Schell

Biography

Maximilian Schell (8 December 1930 – 1 February 2014) was a Swiss actor. Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by performance and literature. While he was still a child, his family fled to Switzerland in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zürich. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting and directing full-time. Schell won the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing a lawyer in the legal drama Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). He was Oscar-nominated for playing a character with multiple identities in The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and for playing a man resisting Nazism in Julia (1977). Fluent in both English and German, Schell earned top billing in a number of Nazi-era themed films. He acted in films such as Topkapi (1964), The Deadly Affair (1967), Counterpoint (1968), Simón Bolívar (1969), The Odessa File (1974), A Bridge Too Far (1977), and Deep Impact (1998). On television, he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations for the NBC film Miss Rose White and the HBO television film Stalin (1992), the later of which earned him the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries o…

Movies & TV Shows

1. Deep Impact (1998) — Jason Lerner
2. Vampires (1998) — Cardinal Alba
3. Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) — Hans Rolfe
4. A Bridge Too Far (1977) — General der Waffen-SS Wilhelm Bittrich
5. The Brothers Bloom (2008) — Diamond Dog
6. The Black Hole (1979) — Dr. Hans Reinhardt
7. Cross of Iron (1977) — Hauptmann Stransky
8. The Freshman (1990) — Larry London
9. Little Odessa (1994) — Arkady Shapira
10. Topkapi (1964) — Walter Harper
11. The Odessa File (1974) — Eduard Roschmann
12. Julia (1977) — Johann
13. The Young Lions (1958) — Capt. Hardenberg
14. The Deadly Affair (1967) — Dieter Frey
15. The Oscars (1953) — Self
16. Joan of Arc (1999) — Brother Jean le Maistre
17. A Far Off Place (1993) — Col. Mopani Theron
18. St. Ives (1976) — Dr. John Constable
19. Abraham (1993) — Pharao
20. Avalanche Express (1979) — Colonel Nikolai Bunin
21. Telling Lies in America (1997) — Dr. Istvan Jonas
22. Krakatoa, East of Java (1969) — Captain Chris Hanson
23. Stalin (1992) — Vladimir Lenin
24. Wiseguy (1987) — Amado Guzman
25. The Eighteenth Angel (1997) — Father Simeon
26. Return from the Ashes (1965) — Stanislaw Pilgrin
27. Left Luggage (1998) — Mr. Silberschmidt
28. The Chosen (1981) — Professor David Malter
29. The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) — Arthur Goldman
30. End of the Game (1975) — Robert Schmied on Audiotape (voice) (uncredited)
31. Counterpoint (1967) — Gen. Schiller
32. The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years (1996) — Cardinal Vittorio
33. The Dick Cavett Show (1968) — Self - Guest
34. Young Catherine (1991) — Frederick the Great
35. House of the Sleeping Beauties (2006) — Kogi
36. Die Harald Schmidt Show (1995) — Self
37. The Condemned of Altona (1962) — Franz von Gerlach
38. Heidi (1968) — Richard Sessemann
39. The Diary of Anne Frank (1980) — Otto Frank
40. Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1961) — Hamlet

Directed

1. End of the Game (1975) — Director
2. Marlene (1984) — Director
3. Tales from the Vienna Woods (1979) — Director
4. First Love (1970) — Director
5. The Pedestrian (1973) — Director
6. My Sister Maria (2002) — Director
7. Candles in the Dark (1993) — Director
8. Alles zum Guten (1967) — Director