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Maximilian Schell Photo by Udo Grimberg

Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Maximilian Schell

Maximilian Schell who was born on 8th December 1930 was an Austrian-born Swiss film and stage actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood.

Born in Austria, his parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by acting and literature. Let’s take a look at some of the most fascinating facts about him;

1.He was born into a Roman Catholic christian family

Schell was born in Vienna, Austria, the son of Margarethe , an actress who ran an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright and pharmacy owner.His parents were Roman Catholic.

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. 

2.He grew up surrounded by the theater in Zurich

The Schell family was forced to flee Vienna in 1938 to get “away from Hitler” after the Anschluss, when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany. They resettled in Zurich, Switzerland.In Zurich, Schell “grew up reading the classics”, and when he was ten, wrote his first play.

Schell recalls that as a child, growing up surrounded by the theater, he took acting for granted and did not want to become an actor at first. He at first wanted was to become a painter, a musician, or a playwright, like his father, he however with time got attracted to the theater and acting became a passion. 

3.Schell attended several Universities in his life

Schell 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 Zurich or stay at his family’s farm in the country so he could write in seclusion. He also attended several other Universities including; attending 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.

4.Schell was also a semi-professional pianist

An image of Maximilian Schell in 1970 Photo sourced from

Schell was also a semi-professional pianist for much of his life. He had a piano when he lived in Munich and said that he would play for hours at a time for his own pleasure and to help him relax: “I find I need to rest. An actor must have pauses in between work, to renew himself, to read, to walk, to chop wood,”he said. 

Conductor Leonard Bernstein claimed that Schell was a “remarkably good pianist.” In 1982 on a program filmed for the U.S. television network PBS, Schell read from Beethoven’s letters to the audience before Bernstein conducted the Vienna Philharmonic playing Beethoven symphonies.

5.Schell’s film debut was in a German anti-war film

Schell’s film debut was in the German anti-war film Kinder, Mutter und ein General (Children, Mothers, and a General, 1955).Schell subsequently acted in seven more films made in Europe before going to the U.S. Among those was The Plot to Assassinate Hitler (also 1955).

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.He could go on to make a name for himself across the globe after this. 

6.He also served as a writer, producer and director for several films and documentaries

Maximilian Schell in 1976 Photo by Hans Peters / Anefo

Schell also served as a writer, producer and director for a variety of films and documentaries, including the problematic documentary film Marlene (1984), with the unwilling participation of Marlene Dietrich. It was nominated for an Oscar, received the New York Film Critics Award and the German Film Award. 

In 2002, Schell produced his most intimate film, My Sister Maria, a documentary about his sister, noted actress Maria Schell.The film, made three years before her death, shows her mental and physical frailty, leading to her withdrawing from the world.

In 2002, upon the completion of the film, they both received Bambi Awards, and were honored for their lifetime achievements and in recognition of the film. 

7.He received several awards in his career

A photo of an award received by Maximilian Schell Photo sourced from

He received several awards in his career including; Academy Award (Best Actor), Judgment at Nuremberg, Ondas Award (Best Actor), Golden Hugo Award for Tales from the Vienna Woods, German Film Award, Film Award for the role Morning in Alabama, and Method Fest for Lifetime Achievement. 

Other awards include;Honorary Award of the Bernhard Wicki Film Award – The Bridge, Honorary Award of the Bavarian Film Awards for artistic mastery and humanism, Honorary Award of the German Film Award, Bambi Award and Diva Award for Lifetime Achievement. 

8.Schell was married twice in his life after a series of relationship

During the 1960s Schell had a three-year-long affair with Soraya Esfandiary-Bakhtiary, former second wife of the Reza Pahlavi, the final Shah of Iran. He also was rumored to have been engaged to the first African-American Supermodel Donyale Luna in the mid 1960s.

In 1985, he met the Russian actress Natalya Andrejchenko, whom he married in June 1986; their daughter Nastassja was born in 1989.He soon however separated from her after they divorced. 

After 2002, separated from his wife (whom he divorced in 2005), Schell had a relationship with the Austrian art historian Elisabeth Michitsch. From 2008 he was romantically involved with German opera singer Iva Mihanovic; they eventually married on 20 August 2013.

9.His net worth is estimated to be around $2.5 million

Schell’s net worth was about $12 million dollar when he passed.He was among the richest actors until his demise and ranks among the most popular movie actors. He earned most of his wealth from his career as an actor, a producer and a director. 

His range of acting went beyond German characters, however, and during his career, he also played personalities as diverse as Venezuelan leader Simón Bolívar, Russian emperor Peter the Great, and scientist Albert Einstein.

10.He died aged 83 on 1st February 2014

Schell died at the age of 83 on 1 February 2014, in Innsbruck, Austria, after a “sudden and serious illness”. The German television news service Tagesschau reported that he had been receiving treatment for pneumonia.

His funeral was attended by Waltraud Haas, Christian Wolff, Karl Spiehs, Lawrence David Foldes, Elisabeth Endriss and Peter Kaiser. His grave is in Preitenegg/Carinthia (Austria) where the family home was located and where he and his sister lived the rest of their lives.