Maria Schell


Maria Schell

About

Also Known As
Gritli Schell, Margarete Schell
Birth Place
Vienna, AT
Born
January 15, 1926
Died
April 26, 2005
Cause of Death
Pneumonia

Biography

Wistful leading lady, in international films from the early 1940s, whose career crested in the 50s. Schell garnered acclaim for her performances in Helmut Kautner's "The Last Bridge" (1955), Luchino Visconti's "White Nights" (1957) and Alexandre Astruc's "End of Desire" (1958). Her appeal quickly diminished with the advance of the 1960s and, following a five year retirement beginning in ...

Photos & Videos

Cimarron (1960) - Publicity Art
The Brothers Karamazov - Publicity Art
Superman: The Movie - Program

Family & Companions

Horst Hachler
Husband
Director. Married 1957-65.
Veit Relin
Husband
Director. Second husband; divorced.

Biography

Wistful leading lady, in international films from the early 1940s, whose career crested in the 50s. Schell garnered acclaim for her performances in Helmut Kautner's "The Last Bridge" (1955), Luchino Visconti's "White Nights" (1957) and Alexandre Astruc's "End of Desire" (1958). Her appeal quickly diminished with the advance of the 1960s and, following a five year retirement beginning in 1963, she reappeared in a number of character roles. Sister of actor/director Maximilian Schell.

Life Events

Photo Collections

Cimarron (1960) - Publicity Art
Here are some specialty drawings created by MGM for newspaper and magazine reproduction to publicize Cimarron (1960), starring Glenn Ford, Maria Schell, and Anne Baxter.
The Brothers Karamazov - Publicity Art
Here is a specialty drawing created by MGM for newspaper and magazine reproduction to publicize The Brothers Karamazov (1958), starring Yul Brynner, Claire Bloom, and Maria Schell.
Superman: The Movie - Program
Here is the official Movie Program from Warner Bros' Superman: The Movie (1978), starring Christopher Reeve, Marlon Brando, Margot Kidder, and Gene Hackman.

Videos

Movie Clip

Odessa File, The (1974) -- (Movie Clip) People Burning Like Torches Jon Voight as reporter Miller, with his girlfriend (Mary Tamm) in Hamburg, 1963, visiting his German mother (Maria Schell, only 12 years Voight's senior) as he considers investigating leads left by a now-deceased Holocaust survivor, Hans Wyprächtiger his landlord, in Ronald Neame's The Odessa File, 1974.
Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights) -- (Movie Clip) He Was A Foreigner Natalia (Maria Schell) is at last warming to Mario (Marcello Mastroianni), so she begins to open up about her life, allowing director Luchino Visconi's first departure from reality, introducing "The Lodger," Jean Marais, in Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights), 1961.
Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights) -- (Movie Clip) I May Be Too Bold Mario (Marcello Mastroianni) has returned to the bar where he met Natalia (Maria Schell, speaking Italian she learned in two weeks) the night before, where she didn't quite promise to meet him again, early in Luchino Visconti's Le Notti Bianche (a.k.a. White Nights), 1961.
Cimarron (1960) -- (Movie Clip) You're Gonna Get Buried Here Bustle on April 21, 1889, eve of the Oklahoma Land Rush, Yancey and Sabra (Glenn Ford, Maria Schell) meet his old friends the Peglers (Robert Keith, Aline MacMahon) and intervene as Yountis (Charles McGraw) and thugs hassle an Indian (Ben Red Feather) and family, also Harry Morgan as Jesse, in Cimarron, 1960.
Cimarron (1960) -- (Movie Clip) All Them Too-Sooners Rolling from Kansas for the 1889 Oklahoma Land Rush, newlyweds Yancey and Sabra (Glenn Ford, Maria Schell) meet the Wyatt’s (Arthur O’Connell, Mercedes McCambridge) and brood, and John Pickard the cavalry captain organizing the event, in producer Edmund Grainger’s Cimarron, 1960.
Cimarron (1960) -- (Movie Clip) What Would We Want A Farm For? Tail end of the Land Rush of 1889, Dixie (Anne Baxter), whom we suppose to be an old girlfriend of settler Yancey “Cimarron” Cravat (Glenn Ford), beats him to his chosen spot, and he returns to tell wife Sabra (Maria Schell) he’s got a new idea for their Oklahoma livelihood, in Cimarron, 1960.
Cimarron (1960) -- (Movie Clip) They Called It Oklahoma Text opens the Edna Ferber novelization of the settlement of Oklahoma, introducing Kansas City immigrant Sabra Venable (Maria Schell) and parents (Ivan Triesault, Lili Darvas), who refer us to Glenn Ford, who is Yancey “Cimarron” Cravat, in Anthony Mann’s update of the 1930 Best Picture winner, Cimarron, 1960.
Brothers Karamazov, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) Nothing Can Be Immoral Director Richard Brooks brings in Dostoyevsky characters, Richard Basehart as Ivan, pestered by Smerdyakov (Albert Salmi) as he greets his brother's bride Katya (Claire Bloom), then Maria Schell as Grushenka, accompanying evil dad Fyodor (Lee J. Cobb), in The Brothers Karamazov, 1958.
Brothers Karamazov, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) You Wouldn't Beat Your Mother Military man Dmitri (Yul Brynner) has not yet met tavern owner and seductress Grushenka (Maria Schell), newly engaged to his evil father, whom he means to confront about why she bought his debts, in Richard Brooks' treatment of the Dostoyevsky novel, The Brothers Karamazov, 1958.
Brothers Karamazov, The (1958) -- (Movie Clip) I Can Always Smell Money Music by Bronislau Kaper, Maria Schell lusty as Grushenka, and Yul Brynner as Dmitri, succumbing to a family flaw, in Richard Brooks' version of the Dostoyevsky novel, The Brothers Karamazov, 1958.
Mark, The (1961) -- She Knows You've Been In Prison We've just learned from boss Clive (Donald Wolfit) that our protagonist Fuller (Stuart Whitman) has been in prison and was hired on his doctors' recommendation, his crime still not revealed, when executive assistant Mrs. Leighton (Maria Schell) is introduced, in The Mark, 1961.
Hanging Tree, The (1959) -- (Movie Clip) More Than Most Of Us See After weeks of treatment, Montana frontier physician “Doc” Frail (Gary Cooper) removes bandages from the eyes of European immigrant Elizabeth (Maria Schell), injured in a spectacular stagecoach wreck, his assistant Rune (Ben Piazza) standing by, in Delmer Daves’ The Hanging Tree, 1959.

Trailer

Family

Margarete Schell
Mother
Actor.
Maximilian Schell
Brother
Actor, director, producer, writer.
Marie-Theres Kroetz
Daughter
Married Franz Xaver Kroetz.

Companions

Horst Hachler
Husband
Director. Married 1957-65.
Veit Relin
Husband
Director. Second husband; divorced.

Bibliography