History Creator / MaximilianSchell

* ''Film/Counterpoint1968''
* ''Film/FirstLove1970'' (also directed)

A 1961 German film version of ''Theatre/{{Hamlet}}'', with Schell in the title role, served as the basis for [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S10E09Hamlet one of the last episodes]] of the original run of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

* ''Film/ThePedestrian'' (1973) (also directed)

He started out on the stage before making his film debut with German movie ''Children, Mothers, and a General'' in 1955. (Creator/KlausKinski starred.) He made his English-language debut in 1959's ''The Young Lions'' opposite Creator/MontgomeryClift and Creator/MarlonBrando. 1961 film ''Film/JudgmentAtNuremberg'', a Hollywood movie in which he played a German defense attorney for Nazi war criminals, made him a huge international star and won him an UsefulNotes/AcademyAward for Best Actor.

In the late 1960s Schell began producing and directing his own projects, and wound up directing eight films. His fluent English got him a lot of parts as either Nazis or persecuted Jews in American World War II movies. He dipped into sci-fi with the lead role in Disney's notorious BoxOfficeBomb ''Film/TheBlackHole''. In his later career he continued to work as a character actor while directing documentaries like ''Marlene'' about Creator/MarleneDietrich and ''My Sister Maria'' about, well, his sister, film actress Maria Schell. In 2001 he starred in the [[ScreenToStageAdaptation Broadway adaptation]] of ''Judgement at Nuremberg'', this time in the role of Ernst Janning.

When he wasn't acting or directing he was occasionally moonlighting as a concert pianist. A film version of ''Hamlet'' with Schell playing Hamlet served as the basis for [[Recap/MysteryScienceTheater3000S10E09Hamlet one of the last episodes]] of the original run of ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000''.

Schell was born in Austria to show business parents (his father was a playwright and novelist and his mother was an actress). When Hitler annexed Austria in 1938 the family moved to Switzerland, which was where Maximilian Schell grew up. He studied at university in Germany and Switzerland, and served a year in the Swiss Army before following in his mother's footsteps and becoming an actor.

Maximilian Schell (1930-2014) was an Austrian-Swiss actor and director.

He started out on the stage before making his film debut with German movie ''Children, Mothers, and a General'' in 1955. (Creator/KlausKinski starred.) He made his English-language debut in 1959's ''The Young Lions'' opposite Creator/MontgomeryClift and Creator/MarlonBrando. 1961 film ''Film/JudgmentAtNuremberg'', a Hollywood movie in which he played a German defense attorney for Nazi war criminals, made him a huge international star and won him an Oscar for Best Actor.

In the late 1960s and 1970s he began producing and directing his own projects, and wound up directing eight films. His fluent English got him a lot of parts as either Nazis or persecuted Jews in American World War II movies. He dipped into sci-fi with the lead role in Disney's notorious BoxOfficeBomb ''Film/TheBlackHole''. In his later career he continued to work as a character actor while directing documentaries like ''Marlene'' about Creator/MarleneDietrich and ''My Sister Maria'' about, well, his sister, film actress Maria Schell. In 2001 he starred in the [[ScreenToStageAdaptation Broadway adaptation]] of ''Judgement at Nuremberg'', this time in the role of Ernst Janning.

In the late 1960s and 1970s he began producing and directing his own projects, and wound up directing eight films. His fluent English got him a lot of parts as either Nazis or persecuted Jews in American World War II movies. He dipped into sci-fi with the lead role in Disney's notorious BoxOfficeBomb ''Film/TheBlackHole''. In his later career he continued to work as a character actor while directing documentaries like ''Marlene'' about Creator/MarleneDietrich and ''My Sister Maria'' about, well, his sister, film actress Maria Schell.

* ''Film/FirstLove'' (1970) (also directed)

In the late 1960s and 1970s he began producing and directing his own projects, and wound up directing eight films. His fluent English got him a lot of parts as either Nazis or persecuted Jews in American World War II movies. He dipped into sci-fi with the lead role in Disney's notorious BoxOfficeBomb ''The Black Hole''. In his later career he continued to work as a character actor while directing documentaries like ''Marlene'' about Creator/MarleneDietrich and ''My Sister Maria'' about, well, his sister, film actress Maria Schell.

Maximilian Schell (1930-2014) was an award-winning actor and director.

* ''[[Film/ThePhantomOfTheOpera1983 The Phantom of the Opera]]'' (1983)