Maximilian Schell - the famous Austrian actor, director and producer - was born on December 8, 1930 and lived a fairly long and very fruitful life. Winner of the prestigious Oscar and Golden Globe awards, as well as the Bambi television award, he made a great contribution to the development of cinema and theater.
Childhood and youth
Maximilian Schell was born into the creative family of Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a writer-playwright, originally from Switzerland, and Austrian actress Margaret Nohe von Nordberg. The boy was the youngest of four children of an international couple. In 1938, due to the German annexation, the family had to leave the Austrian capital Vienna and flee to Zurich. It was in this scientific, financial and cultural center of Switzerland that Maximilian spent his childhood.
After graduating from high school, the teenager entered the university, where he seriously played football and participated in the university team rowing competitions. Along with this, he moonlighted as a freelance correspondent. When the war ended, Shell moved to Germany, where he studied Germanic studies and art history, theater and musicology, philosophy and literature at the University of Munich. Upon reaching draft age, Schell returned to Zurich and enlisted in the Swiss army.
The beginning of the creative path
The father did not overly encourage Maximilian and his other children’s hobby for acting, doubting that such a life would bring prosperity and happiness to his beloved children. But the creative environment in which they grew up, as well as the theatrical career of their mother, determined the choice of Schell, his two sisters and his brother. At the age of 9, the future Oscar-winner writes his first play, and he appears on the stage even earlier - already at the age of three he was assigned one of the roles in the play staged by his father. The debut of the adult artist took place while studying at the Bern Conservatory in 1953. It was the stage of the local City Theater. That evening, the future famous playwright showed himself both as an actor and a director at the same time.
Over the next few years, Shell sought out suitable accommodation and changed theater after theater. Finally, in 1959, he opted for the Munich Chamber Theater. However, unexpectedly a tempting offer comes from Gustaf Grundgens and Shell goes to Hamburg, where he works until 1963.
At the end of the 60s, the young playwright moved to London and for quite a long time earned his living by translating Shakespeare's works, small and rare theatrical roles. Only in 1978 did Shell receive a worthy offer to play in the production of the play "Namearek" by Hoffmannsthal. He performed it at the Salzburg Festival until 1982. In addition, Maximilian Schell continues to focus on directing and staging operas. Many years later, in 2007, he will create the world-famous production of Johann Strauss's operetta "Vienna Blood" in the Austrian city of Mörbisch am See.
Movie
The first film work for Maximilian Schell was the role in the military drama Children, Mother and General. This picture turned out to be successful, and eminent directors began to invite the actor who played the deserter. The next films were: - Melodrama "Girl from Flanders" 1956; - the crime drama "And the Last Will Be the First" in 1957; - the war drama "Young Lions" in 1958 with Marlon Brando - "The Three Musketeers" (1960).
In 1960, Shell played Hamlet in a television play based on Shakespeare's play of the same name. His performance as Prince of Denmark is considered one of the best, along with the work of Laurence Olivier.
In 1960, Maximillian Schell also gets the role of Nazi lawyer Hans Rolf in the legal film The Nuremberg Trials. He works with renowned artists such as Bert Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Spencer Tracy, Richard Widmark and Judy Garland. It was for this tape in 1962 M. Shell receives two of its main awards - the Oscars and the Golden Globes. The picture brought him worldwide fame. Film critics were impressed by the actor's performance. In preparation for the film, Schell reread the vast amount of available documents from the Nuremberg Trials.
Several years after the Oscars, M. Schell cannot repeat the success and balances between culturally valuable, but low-budget films and second-rate commercial projects. During this period, films were created:
- "Topkapi" 1964,
- "Suicide Case" 1966,
- "Death on the volcano Krakatoa" 1969,
- Simon Bolivar (1969),
- The Players (1979)
With royalties from the films, Shell created his own directorial productions. Of all his works, the most famous are:
- the melodramatic film "First Love", which appeared on the screens in 1970;
- drama "Pedestrian" (1974),
- drama "Judge and Executioner" (1975),
- the documentary film "Marlene" (1984), in which Shell works as a documentary filmmaker.
A very personal work for the Austrian director was the film "My Sister Maria", which he dedicated to his own sister Maria Schell. For this work, the brother and sister were awarded the prestigious Bambi television award.
Schell's next major successes were roles in the drama films The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and Julia (1977). For both films, the actor was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and Best Actor. second plan.
The last film by Maximilian Schell, shown on the screens, was the crime drama "The Robbers". Viewers saw her in 2015 - after the death of the actor.
A family
M. Schell was married twice. For the first time, an actor went to the altar with the popular Soviet actress Natalya Andreichenko. The celebrities met in 1985 during the filming of the mini-series "Peter the Great", which took place in Russia. The lovers got married in 1986, and in 1989 they had a daughter, Nastasya. Maximilian also adopted Natalia's son from Dmitry's first marriage. In 2005, the relationship collapses, and the actors get divorced. The initiator was Maximilian, who met a new muse - Elizabeth Mihich - an art critic and gallery owner, originally from Vienna, who is 47 years younger than him. In 2008, Shell struck up a new relationship with the opera singer Iva Mikhanovich. She became his last love. On August 20, 2013, the couple officially registered the relationship - a few months before the death of the actor.
Death
In the last years of his life M. Schell experienced severe pain, it was difficult for him to move. After a complex spinal surgery in February 2014, the actor died in hospital without regaining consciousness. He was buried in the Wolfsberg district in Austria.
