Actor Maximilan Schell Dead at 83

Won 1961 best actor Oscar
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Feb 1, 2014 3:55 PM CST
Actor Maximilan Schell Dead at 83
In this April 9, 1962 file picture, Joan Crawford presents an Oscar to Maximilian Schell on the stage at Santa Monica, Calif., April 9, 1962.   (AP Photo/Anonymous)

Austrian-born actor Maximilian Schell, a fugitive from Adolf Hitler who became a Hollywood favorite and won an Oscar for his role as a defense attorney in Stanley Kramer's classic Judgment at Nuremberg, has died. He was 83. Schell's agent said he died overnight at a hospital in the Austrian city of Innsbruck following a "sudden illness." Despite being type-cast for numerous Nazi-era films, Schell's acting performances in the mid-1970s won him renewed popular acclaim, earning him a best actor Oscar nomination for The Man in the Glass Booth and a supporting actor nomination for Julia.

Schell later worked as a producer and director, receiving further Oscar nods for Best Foreign Film for First Love and The Pedestrian. Perhaps Schell's most significant film as a director was his 1984 documentary on Marlene Dietrich, Marlene, which was nominated for a best documentary Oscar. Schell was also a highly successful concert pianist and conductor. Austrian Cabinet minister Josef Ostermayer described Schell as one of "the greatest actors in the German-speaking world," the Austria Press Agency reported. (More Maximilian Schell stories.)

Get the news faster.
Tap to install our app.
X
Install the Newser News app
in two easy steps:
1. Tap in your navigation bar.
2. Tap to Add to Home Screen.

X