Editing Maximilian Schell (section)

== Early life and education ==
Schell was born in [[Vienna]], Austria, the son of Margarethe (née Noe von Nordberg), an actress who ran an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright, and pharmacy owner.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.filmreference.com/film/40/Maximilian-Schell.html |title=Maximilian Schell Biography (1930-) |website=www.filmreference.com}}</ref><ref name=Ross>Ross, Lillian and Helen. [https://archive.org/stream/playeraprofileof002609mbp/playeraprofileof002609mbp_djvu.txt ''The Player: A Profile of an Art''], Simon & Schuster (1961) pp. 231–239</ref> His parents were [[Roman Catholic]].<ref name=Ross/>

Schell's father was never enthusiastic about young Maximilian becoming an actor like his mother, feeling that it could not lead to "real happiness". However, Schell was surrounded by acting in his early youth:

{{quote|I grew up in a theatre atmosphere and took it for granted. I remember the theatre, as a child, the way most people remember their mother's cooking. Acting was all around me, and so was poetry. I made my debut in the theatre at the age of three, in Vienna . . .<ref name=Ross/>}}

The Schell family fled from Vienna in 1938 to get "away from [[Hitler]]" after the [[Anschluss]], when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany. They resettled in [[Zürich]], Switzerland.<ref name=Edlinger>[http://upv.tripod.com/soloistsenglish.htm "Artists of Holocaust Symphony: 'The Train' "] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190410110037/http://upv.tripod.com/soloistsenglish.htm |date=10 April 2019 }}, 22 November 2004</ref>

In Zürich, Schell "grew up reading the [[classics]]" and, when he was ten, wrote his first play.<ref name=Ross/> Schell recalls that as a child, growing up surrounded by the theatre, he took acting for granted and did not want to become an actor at first: "What I wanted was to become a painter, a musician, or a playwright," like his father.<ref name=Ross/>

Schell later attended the [[University of Zurich]] for a year, where he also played soccer and was on the rowing team, along with writing for newspapers as a part-time journalist for income. Following the end of World War II, he moved to Germany where he enrolled in the [[University of Munich]] and studied philosophy and art history. During breaks, he would sometimes return home to Zürich or stay at his family's farm in the country so he could write in seclusion:

{{quote|My father and my uncle hunt deer there, but I do not like to hunt. I like to walk through the forest by myself. In 1948 and 1949, when I wrote part of my first novel, which I have never shown to anyone, I isolated myself in one of the hunting cabins for three months, without a telephone, without electricity, with heat only from a large open fireplace.<ref name=Ross/>}}

Schell then returned to Zürich, where he served in the [[Swiss Army]] for a year, after which he attended the sixth form of [[University College School]], London, for one year before re-entering the University of Zurich for another year, and later, the [[University of Basel]] for six months. During that period, he acted professionally in small parts, in both classical and modern plays, and decided that he would from then on devote his life to acting rather than pursue academic studies:

{{quote|I then decided, either you are a scientist or an artist. . . . To me it is much more important . . . to admire and feel and be stimulated and inspired. . . Art comes out of chaos, not out of a mechanical analyzing. So as soon as I made up my mind, there was no sense any more in continuing to study and in getting a degree. It is like an award; it does not mean anything in itself. . . . A university degree is just a title. I don't think an artist should have a title. It was time for me to concentrate on acting.<ref name=Ross/>}}

Schell began acting at the Basel Theatre.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800019100/bio|title=''Maximillian Schell'' bio at Yahoo! Movies}}</ref>

His elder sister [[Maria Schell]] was also an actor, as were their siblings, Carl (1927–2019)<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nzz.ch/panorama/der-schweizer-schauspieler-carl-schell-ist-gestorben-ld.1487530|title=Der Schweizer Schauspieler Carl Schell ist gestorben|first=Michèle|last=Schell*|work=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |date=7 June 2019|via=[[Neue Zürcher Zeitung|NZZ]]}}</ref> and Immaculata "Immy" Schell (1935–1992).