Editing Maximilian Schell (section)

==Career==
=== 1955–1959: Early work and theater roles ===  
Schell's film debut was in the German anti-war film ''[[Kinder, Mütter und ein General]]'' (''Children, Mothers, and a General'', 1955). It was the story of five mothers who confronted a German general at the front line, after learning that their sons, some as young as 15, had been "slated to be cannon fodder on behalf of the Third Reich." The film co-starred [[Klaus Kinski]] as an officer, with Schell playing the part of an officer-[[deserter]].<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20110520210410/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/135122/Kinder-Mutter-und-Ein-General/overview "Kinder, Mutter und Ein General (1955)"], ''New York Times'', accessed, 29 September 2013</ref> The story, which according to one critic, "depicts the insanity of continuing to fight a war that is lost," would become a "trademark" for many of Schell's future roles: "Schell's sensitivity in his portrayal of a young deserter disillusioned with fighting became a trademark of his acting."<ref name=Reimer>Reimer, Robert C. and Carol J., ''The A to Z of German Cinema'', Rowman and Littlefield (2008) pp. 258–260</ref>

Schell subsequently acted in seven more films made in Europe before going to the U.S.<ref name=Monush>Monush, Barry. ''The Encyclopedia of Hollywood Film Actors'', Applause Theatre and Cinema Books (2003) pp. 666–667</ref> Among those was ''[[The Plot to Assassinate Hitler]]'' (also 1955).{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} Later in the same year he had a supporting role in ''[[Jackboot Mutiny]]'', in which he plays "a sensitive philosopher", who uses ethics to privately debate the arguments for assassinating Hitler.<ref name=Reimer/>

In 1958 Schell was invited to the United States to act in the Broadway play, "Interlock" by [[Ira Levin]], in which Schell played the role of an aspiring concert pianist.<ref>[http://www.playbillvault.com/Show/Detail/5319/Interlock ''Interlock''], ''Playbill'', 6 February 1958</ref> He made his [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] debut in the [[World War II]] film, [[The Young Lions (film)|''The Young Lions'']] (1958), as the commanding German officer in another anti-war story, with [[Marlon Brando]] and [[Montgomery Clift]]. German film historian Robert C. Reimer writes that the film, directed by [[Edward Dmytryk]], again drew on Schell's German characterisation to "portray young officers disillusioned with a war that no longer made sense."<ref name=Reimer/>

In 1960, Schell returned to Germany and played the title role in [[William Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'' for German TV, a role that he would play on two more occasions in live theatre productions during his career. Along with [[Laurence Olivier]], Schell is considered "one of the greatest Hamlets ever," according to one writer.<ref name=Boheme/> Schell recalled that when he played Hamlet for the first time, "it was like falling in love with a woman.&nbsp;... not until I acted the part of Hamlet did I have a moment when I knew I was in love with acting."<ref name=Ross/> Schell's performance of Hamlet was featured as one of the last episodes of the American comedy series ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' in 1999.

=== 1960–1979: Breakthrough and acclaim ===
[[File:Maximilian Schell - 1961-jn.jpg|thumb|In ''Judgment at Nuremberg'' (1961)]]
In 1959, Schell acted in the role of a defence attorney on a live TV production, ''[[Judgment at Nuremberg (Playhouse 90)|Judgment at Nuremberg]]'', a fictionalized re-creation of the [[Nuremberg War Trials]], in an edition of ''[[Playhouse 90]]''. His performance in the TV drama was considered so good that he and [[Werner Klemperer]] were among the only members of the original cast selected to play the same parts in the 1961 film version. He won the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]], which was the first win for a German-speaking actor since World War II.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz2USfzaCUE |title=Maximilian Schell winning Best Actor |date=11 October 2011 |publisher=[[Oscars]] |via=YouTube |language=en}}, video clip, 2 minutes</ref> After winning the [[New York Film Critics]] award for his role, Schell recalled the pride he felt upon receiving a letter from his older sister [[Maria Schell]], who was already an award-winning actress, "I received the most wonderful letter from Maria. She wrote, 'Now, when you have my letter in your hand, a beautiful day is coming for you. I will be with you, proud, because I knew such recognition would come one day, leading to something even greater and better. . . . not only because you are close to me but because I count you among the truly great actors, and it is wonderful that besides that you are my brother.' Maria and I are very close".<ref name=Ross/>

According to Reimer, Schell gave a "bravura performance," where he tried to defend his clients, Nazi judges, "by arguing that all Germans share a collective guilt" for what happened.<ref name=Reimer/> Biographer James Curtis notes that Schell prepared for his part in the movie by "reading the entire forty-volume record of the Nuremberg trials."<ref>Curtis, James. ''Spencer Tracy: A Biography'', Random House (2011) p. 783</ref> Author Barry Monush describes the impact of Schell's acting, "Again, on the big screen, he was nothing short of electrifying as the counselor whose determination to place the blame for the [[Holocaust]] on anyone else but his clients, and brings morality into question".<ref name=Monush/><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAFeKZ1EsYo |title=Das Urteil von Nürnberg |date=29 August 2010 |publisher=TARONIPP |language=en |via=YouTube}}, video clip, 4 minutes</ref>

Producer-director [[Stanley Kramer]] assembled a star-studded [[ensemble cast]] which included [[Spencer Tracy]] and [[Burt Lancaster]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfOgZXIQ6fo |title=Judgment at Nuremberg Official Trailer #1 - Burt Lancaster Movie (1961) HD |language=en |date=5 October 2012 |publisher=Rotten Tomatoes Classic Trailers |via=YouTube}}, videa trailer, 3 minutes</ref> They "worked for nominal wages out of a desire to see the film made and for the opportunity to appear in it," notes film historian George McManus.<ref>Mcmanus, George. ''A Conservative Christian Reviews the Greatest Movies Ever Made'', Xulon Press (2003) p. 94</ref> Actor [[William Shatner]] remembers that, prior to the actual filming, "we understood the importance of the film we were making."<ref>Shatner, William. ''Up Till Now: The Autobiography'', Macmillan (2008) p. 76</ref> It was nominated for eleven Academy Awards, winning two.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} In 2011, Schell appeared at a 50th anniversary tribute to the film and his Oscar win, held in Los Angeles at the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences]], where he spoke about his career and the film.<ref>[http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/oscar-alumni-maximilian-schell-academy-judgment-nuremberg-246676 "OSCAR ALUMNI: Maximilian Schell to Appear at Academy Tribute Tuesday"], ''The Hollywood Reporter'', 11 October 2011</ref>

Beginning in 1968 Schell began writing, producing, directing and acting in a number of his own films: Among those were [[The Castle (1968 film)|''The Castle'']] (1968), a German film based on the novel by [[Franz Kafka]], about a man trapped in a [[bureaucratic]] nightmare. Soon after he made [[First Love (1970 film)|''Erste Liebe (First Love)'']] (1970), based on a novel by [[Ivan Turgenev]]. The film was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film]].

Schell's next film, ''[[The Pedestrian (film)|The Pedestrian]]'' (1974), is about a German tycoon "haunted by his Nazi past". In this film, notes one critic, "Schell probes the conscience and guilt in terms of the individual and of society, reaching to the universal heart of responsibility and moral inertia."<ref>''New York Magazine'', 22 April 1974 p. 14</ref> It was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] Oscar<ref name="Oscars1974">{{Cite web |url=http://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1974 |title=The 46th Academy Awards (1974) Nominees and Winners |access-date=3 December 2011 |work=oscars.org}}</ref> and was a "great and commercial success in Germany," notes [[Roger Ebert]].<ref name=Ebert/>

Schell then produced, directed, and acted as a supporting character in ''[[End of the Game]]'' (1975), a German crime thriller starring [[Jon Voight]] and [[Jacqueline Bisset]]. A few years later he co-wrote and directed the Austrian film [[Tales from the Vienna Woods (1979 film)|''Tales from the Vienna Woods'']] (1979). He had previously (1977) directed a stage production of the original play of that name by [[Ödön von Horváth]] at the [[Royal National Theatre|National Theatre]] in London.

[[File:Maximilian Schell 1961.jpg|thumb|Drawing of Schell after he won an Oscar for ''Judgment at Nuremberg'' (1961). Artist: [[Nicholas Volpe]]]]
During his career, as one of the few German-speaking actors working in English-language films, Schell was top billed in a number of [[Nazi Germany|Nazi]]-era themed films, including ''[[Counterpoint (1968 film)|Counterpoint]]'' (1968), ''[[The Odessa File (film)|The Odessa File]]'' (1974)'', [[The Man in the Glass Booth]]'' (1975), ''[[A Bridge Too Far (1977 film)|A Bridge Too Far]]'' (1977), ''[[Cross of Iron]]'' (1977) and ''[[Julia (1977 film)|Julia]]'' (1977). For the latter film, directed by [[Fred Zinnemann]], Schell was again nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as an anti-Nazi activist.<ref name=Bock>Bock, Hans-Michael; Bergfelder, Tim. ''The Concise Cinegraph: Encyclopedia of German Cinema'', Berghahn Books (2009) p. 417</ref>

In a number of films Schell played the role of a Jewish character: as Otto Frank, Anne Frank's father, in ''[[The Diary of Anne Frank (1980 film)|The Diary of Anne Frank]]'' (1980); as the modern Zionist father in ''[[The Chosen (1981 film)|The Chosen]]'' (1981); in 1996, he played an [[Auschwitz]] survivor in ''[[Through Roses]]'', a German film, written and directed by [[Jürgen Flimm]];<ref name=Bock/> and in [[Left Luggage (film)|''Left Luggage'']] (1998) he played the father of a Jewish family.

In ''[[The Man in the Glass Booth]]'' (1975), adapted from the stage play by [[Robert Shaw (British actor)|Robert Shaw]], Schell played both a Nazi officer and a Jewish Holocaust survivor, in a character with a double identity. [[Roger Ebert]] describes the main character, Albert Goldman, as "mad, and immensely complicated, and he is hidden in a maze of identities so thick that no one knows for sure who he really is."<ref name=Ebert>Ebert, Roger. [http://www.rogerebert.com/interviews/interview-with-maximilian-schell "Interview with Maximilian Schell"], 17 August 1975</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23MTR9cVywU |title=The Man in the Glass Booth |via=YouTube |access-date=19 October 2022 |archive-date=2 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220602181549/https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=23MTR9cVywU |url-status=dead}}, video trailer, 2.5 minutes</ref> Schell, who at that period in his career saw himself primarily as a director, felt compelled to accept the part when it was offered to him:

{{quote|It's just that once in a long while a role comes along that I simply can't turn down. This was a role like that — how could I say no to it?<ref name=Ebert/>}}

Schell's acting in the film has been compared favorably to his other leading roles, with film historian Annette Insdorf writing, "Maximilian Schell is even more compelling as the quick-tempered, quicksilver Goldman than in his previous Holocaust-related roles, including ''Judgment at Nuremberg'' and ''The Condemned of Altona"''. She gives a number of examples of Schell's acting intensity, including the courtroom scenes, where Schell's character, after supposedly being exposed as a German officer, "attacks Jewish meekness" in his defense, and "boasts that the Jews were sheep who didn't believe what was happening." The film eventually suggests that Schell's character is in fact a Jew, but one whose sanity has been compromised by "[[survivor guilt]]."<ref name=Insdorf>Insdorf, Annette. ''Indelible Shadows: Film and the Holocaust'', 3rd ed., Cambridge Univ. Press (2003) p. 171</ref> Schell was nominated for the [[Academy Award for Best Actor]] and the [[Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama|Golden Globe Award for Best Actor]] for his performance. To avoid being [[typecasting (acting)|typecast]], Schell also played more diverse characters in numerous films throughout his career: he played a museum treasure thief in ''[[Topkapi (film)|Topkapi]]'' (1964); the [[Simon Bolivar|eponymous Venezuelan revolutionary]] in [[Simón Bolívar (1969 film)|''Simón Bolívar'']] (1969); a 19th-century ship captain in ''[[Krakatoa, East of Java]]'' (1969); a [[Captain Nemo]]-esque scientist/starship commander in the science fiction film, ''[[The Black Hole (1979 film)|The Black Hole]]'' (1979). 

===1980–2009: Career fluctuations ===
[[File:Maximilian Schell edit.jpg|thumb|left|Schell in 2006]]
He took roles such as the Russian emperor in the television miniseries, ''[[Peter the Great (TV Series)|Peter the Great]]'' (1986), opposite [[Laurence Olivier]], [[Vanessa Redgrave]], and [[Trevor Howard]], which won an [[Emmy Award]]; a comedy role with [[Marlon Brando]] in ''[[The Freshman (1990 film)|The Freshman]]'' (1990); [[Reese Witherspoon]]'s surrogate grandfather in ''[[A Far Off Place]]''; a treacherous Cardinal in ''[[John Carpenter's Vampires]]'' (1998); as [[Frederick the Great]] in a TV film, ''Young Catherine'' (1991); as [[Vladimir Lenin]] in the TV series, ''[[Stalin (TV film)|Stalin]]'' (1992), for which he won the [[Golden Globe Award]];<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdQsfwqquZI |title=Maximilian Schell Wins Best Supporting Actor TV Series - Golden Globes 1993 |publisher=AwardsShowNetwork |date=26 January 2011 |language=en |via=YouTube}}, video, 2 minutes</ref> a Russian KGB colonel in ''[[Candles in the Dark]]'' (1993); the Pharaoh in [[Abraham (1993 film)|''Abraham'']] (1994); and [[Tea Leoni]]'s father in the science fiction thriller, [[Deep Impact (film)|''Deep Impact'']] (1998).

From the 1990s until late in his career, Schell appeared in many [[German language|German-language]] made-for-TV films, such as the 2003 film ''[[Alles Glück dieser Erde]]'' (''All the Luck in the World'') opposite [[Uschi Glas]] and in the television miniseries ''{{ill|Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers|de|3=Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers (Film)|lt=Die Rückkehr des Tanzlehrers}}'' (2004), which was based on [[Henning Mankell]]'s novel ''[[The Return of the Dancing Master]]''. In 2006 he appeared in the stage play of [[Arthur Miller]]'s ''[[Resurrection Blues]]'', directed by [[Robert Altman]], which played in London at the [[Old Vic]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/11786/resurrection-blues|title=''Resurrection Blues'' review}}</ref> In 2007, he played the role of [[Albert Einstein]] on the German television series ''Giganten'' (Giants), which enacted the lives of people important in German history.<ref name=Reimer/><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_J6P9lSosw |title=Albert Einstein - Giants (1/4) |publisher=RichardDavidPrecht |date=18 December 2009 |language=en |via=YouTube}}, 10 min. video clip</ref>

[[File:Maximilian and Maria Schell - 1959.jpg|thumb|With his sister, actress [[Maria Schell]], in 1959]]

Schell also served as a writer, producer and director for a variety of films, including the documentary film ''[[Marlene (1984 film)|Marlene]]'' (1984), with the participation of [[Marlene Dietrich]]. It was nominated for an Oscar, received the [[New York Film Critics Award]] and the [[German Film Award]]. Originally, Dietrich, then 83 years of age, had agreed to allow Schell to interview and film her in the privacy of her apartment. However, after he began filming, she changed her mind and refused to allow any actual video footage of her be shown. During a videotaped interview, Schell described the difficulties he had while making the film.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RimHHAB4UsM |title=Maximilian Schell on Marlene Dietrich |via=YouTube |date=9 June 2013 |archive-date=27 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151227085412/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RimHHAB4UsM |url-status=dead }}, 6-minute video</ref>

Schell creatively showed only [[silhouette]]s of her along with old film clips during their interview soundtrack.<ref name=Reimer/> According to one review, "the true originality of the movie is the way it pursues the clash of temperament between interviewer and star. . . . he draws her out, taunting her into a fascinating display of egotism, lying and contentiousness."<ref>''New York Magazine'', 1 December 1986 p. 166</ref><ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAwySztcrqQ |title=Marlene Documentary by Maximilian Schell |publisher=pickypicnic |via=YouTube |date=27 November 2009}}, video clip, 2 minutes</ref>

Schell produced ''[[My Sister Maria]]'' in 2002, an intimate documentary about his sister, the noted actress [[Maria Schell]].<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fA95jl_j3vw |title=Meine Schwester Maria (Trailer) [My Sister Maria] (with english subtitles) |date=29 May 2012 |publisher=dani77744 |via=YouTube |language=de}}, video, 1 minute</ref> In the film, he chronicles her life, career and eventual diminished capacity due to illness.{{Citation needed|date=October 2022}} The film, made three years before her death, shows her mental and physical frailty, leading to her withdrawing from the world.<ref name=Reimer/> In 2002, upon the completion of the film, they both received [[Bambi (prize)|Bambi Awards]], and were honored for their lifetime achievements and in recognition of the film.<ref name=Boheme/>