Biography

Maria Schell studied in a religious institution in Colmar (Haut-Rhin, France). She received a dramatic training in Zurich, Switzerland. To pay her studies, she was a secretary there. Besides being a film star; Maria appeared in plays in Zurich, Basel, in Vienna (Josefstad Theater), Berlin, Munich (Kammerspiel Theater), at the Salzburg Festival and went on provincial tours from 1963. Among the plays she performed there were such classics as William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's "Faust" and such modern classics as "Pygmalion" by George Bernard Shaw.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Guy Bellinger

She was the daughter of the writer Ferdinand Hermann Schell and the actress Margarethe Noe. Her three siblings Carl, Maximilian and Immy also became actors. After the family fled Vienna from the National Socialists in 1938, they attended an Alsatian monastery school. Schell then completed a commercial apprenticeship and received singing and acting lessons. After her training she was seen at the theater in Bern and also at the Kammerspiele in Vienna. She made her film debut in 1942 alongside Heinrich Gretler and her mother. After further productions, Schell celebrated great success in 1948 with the film "The Angel with the Trombone". In 1950 she was seen as "Gretchen" with Albert Bassermann on an international tour in "Faust". This was followed by numerous appearances in German films and Schell became a star of the Adenauer era.

As a "little soul" with teary eyes, Schell managed to conquer the hearts of an audience of millions in films such as "There Comes a Day" with Dieter Borsche, "Dr. Holl" or in "Until We Meet Again" with Otto Wilhelm Fischer. Schell celebrated his first international success in 1954 in Helmut Käutner's anti-war film "The Last Bridge" with the serious character role of the hospital head nurse. That same year she was named best actress at the Cannes Film Festival. Schell was then honored in Venice with the "Coppa Volpi" for the title role of the laundress in "Gervaise". In 1957 she married the director Horst Hachler. From the same year, Schell was under contract with "MGM" in Hollywood. She starred, among other things, in world literature adaptations such as "The Brothers Karamazov" alongside Yul Brynner. In 1958 she shone alongside Curd Jürgens in the Zuckmayer film adaptation "Der Schinderhannes".

Other successful film adaptations included the western "Cimarron", in which Schell shone alongside Glenn Ford, and "The Galgen Tree" with Garry Cooper. In addition to film work, the actress also continued her theater career in France, Switzerland, Austria and Germany. She also appeared on stage at the Salzburg Festival in 1955 and 1979. Schell's marriage ended in divorce in 1965. Her second marriage was to the director Veit Relin in 1966. Their daughter Marie-Therese Relin also became an actress. Since the beginning of the 1970s, Schell has often been involved in German and American TV and cinema productions. In 1976 she starred in "Voyage of the Damned" opposite Faye Dunaway, and in 1978 she appeared in "Superman" alongside Marlon Brando and Christopher Reeves. Maria Schell received the "Film Ribbon in Gold" in 1977 for many years of outstanding work in German film. In 1981, she appeared alongside Romy Schneider in a supporting role in the melodrama "The Stroller of Sans-Souci".

After further productions in the 1980s, she played her last major international film role in "Samson and Delila" in 1996. In 2002, Maximilian Schell, her brother, dedicated a highly acclaimed film portrait entitled "My Sister Maria" to her.

After a long illness, Maria Schell died on April 26, 2005 in her farmhouse in Carinthia.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth