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Maximilian Schell

Max's Godfather

Urban-Max Entlebucher Mountain Dogs

The legendary Oscar winner Maximilian Schell has received countless honors in the course of his long and illustrious career, including six Oscar nominations, three New York film Critics Awards, several Golden Globe Awards and seven Federal Film Awards.

Maximilian Schell was born in Vienna as a son of the writer Hermann Ferdinand Schell and his Austrian wife, the actress Margarethe Noé. In 1938 the family had to leave Vienna and move to Switzerland to escape the Nazis. His career on the stage began in 1954 and his Hollywood Film debut was in 1958 opposite Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift in THE YOUNG LIONS (Director: Edward Dmytryk).  Three years later he won the Oscar for Best Actor in Stanley Kramer's film, JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. He received further Oscar nominations (as Best Supporting Actor) in THE MAN ONE IN THE GLASS BOOTH (Director: Arthur Hiller), and in the film JULIA.

Among his other successes are: TOPKAPI (Director: Jules Dassin), LITTLE ODESSA (Director: James Gray), THE DEADLY AFFAIR (Director: Sidney Lumet), THE CONDEMNED OF  ALTONA (Director: Vittorio de Sica), SIMON BOLIVAR (Director: Alessandro Baldessari), THE ODESSA FILE (Director: Ronald Neame), The IRON CROSS (Director: Sam Peckinpah), A BRIDGE TOO FAR (Director: Richard Attenborough), THE CHOSEN (Director: Jeremy Kagan), THE ROSE GARDEN (Director: Fons Rademakers); and some German films, like MORNINGS IN ALABAMA (Director: Norbert Kueckelmann), the LOCK (Director: Rudolf Noelte), LAW after Duerrenmatt (Director: Hans's W. Geissendoerfer) and THROUGH ROSES (Director: Juergen Flimm).

In 1991 Schell again starred with Marlon Brando in THE FRESHMAN, his first comedic role in an American production. He also played a main role in TELLING LIES IN AMERICA written by Joe Eszterhas; and LEFT LUGGAGE  with Isabella Rosselini in 1998 (Director: Jeroen Krabbé). Two of his most recent commercial successes were 1998 in DEEP IMPACT (Director: Mimi leathers) and in 1999  with John Carpenter's VAMPIRES. 2000 followed with a major role in  Henry Jaglom's FESTIVAL IN CANNES (with Anouk Aimée and Greta Scacchi) and an American Masterpiece Theatre piece by Willa Cather called THE SONG OF THE LARK.

Schell's career as a film director is likewise impressive with two Oscar nominations for FIRST LOVE, based on the novella by Turgenjev, and the PEDESTRIAN. Schell also wrote and produced the PEDESTRIAN, who received 49 international prizes, including a Golden Globe Award. Other pieces were  Duerrenmatt's, JUDGES AND ITS HENKER, the film adaptation of Horváths STORIES FROM the VIENNA FOREST and the OSCAR-nominated documentary film MARLENE, which won the New York Film Critics Award and National Board Of Review Award. MARLENE, a Cinematic Collage is considered as a trailblazer for a new film style. Schell received a Emmy nomination for his role in the Hallmark Hall Of Fame Production MISS ROSE WHITE (Director: Joseph Sargent). For the role Lenin in the HBO film STALIN (Director: Ivan Passer), he won The Golden  Globe, the Cable Ace Award, and  was nominated for an Emmy as best actor in a supporting role. Schell played the title role in the German TV production of HAMLET and, again, in the four-hour TV mini-series PETER the GREAT which won him an Emmy. His HAMLET was cited by Trevor Nunn in his film, THE GREAT HAMLETS OF OUR TIME, together with Laurence Olivier, Jean Louis Barrault, Alec Guiness and Vittorio Gassmann.

Although he admits, for all his film work, Schell remained always connected with the theatre. In 1958 he had his debut on Broadway with Irish Republican Army Levin's INTER-LOCK.  In 1965 he played the main role in John Osborne's A PATRIOT FOR ME; first in London at the Royal Court Theatre, and then on Broadway. He played HAMLET twice, first under  the direction of Gustaf, and later under own direction in Munich. During 1966 he had four premieres in different functions within a month: at the theatre in the Josefstadt in Vienna as an actor in the double role of the VENEZIANI TWINS of GOLDONI; as a director of EVERYTHING TO the GOOD ON;  the premiere of his piece HEROSTRAT in Bochum and premiere of its translation of PATRIOT FOR ME in Bremen (Director: Peter Zadek).  For five years from 1978 - 1982 Schell was always entered in the Sulzberger festivals.

He received an honorary doctorate in 1992 from the College OF Judaic in Chicago and was a guest professor at the University Of Southern California. In 1997 he published his first novel, DER  REBEL. On Broadway he celebrated a triumph in the play JUDGMENT At NUREMBERG. In Los Angeles he produced, by special request of Placido Domingo in 2001, the daring opera production of LOHENGRIN with sensational success.

The public does not know, perhaps, that Maximilian Schell has a considerable musical talent. Leonard Bernstein called him "a remarkably good pianist". Schell worked several times with Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Philharmonic. He also worked on OEDIPUS REX with Stravinsky in Chicago, and then with James Levine in Salzburg, with Esa Pekka Salonen in Los Angeles and with Christoph of Dohnanyi in Cleveland.

Below is a list of his many and diverse credits:

Actor - filmography

Director - filmography

Writer - filmography

Producer - filmography

Notable TV Guest Appearances