Maximilian Schell, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dies at 83

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Brilliant actor in dramas like Nuremberg Trials to comedies like The Freshman!

Maximilian Schell, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dies at 83

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Maximilian Schell, the ruggedly handsome Austrian-born actor who won an Academy Award for his role in “Judgment at Nuremberg,” died early Saturday at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria. He was 83.

Patricia Baumbauer, his agent, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

Stanley Kramer’s “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961), a courtroom drama recounting the Nazi war-crime trials in Germany in 1945-46, had an all-star cast, including Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and Montgomery Clift. But Mr. Schell’s performance as the passionate, eloquent and ultimately furious German defense lawyer was the only one honored by the academy with an award. The film had begun as a television play, a 1959 episode of the anthology series “Playhouse 90,” in which Mr. Schell also starred.

He went on to earn two more Oscar nominations, for the title role in “The Man in the Glass Booth” (1975), a drama inspired by the trial in Israel of the Holocaust criminal Adolf Eichmann, and “Julia” (1977), based on a Lillian Hellman story about the underground in Nazi Germany.

http://static01.nyt.com/images/2014/02/02/movies/02schell3/02schell3-master675.jpg

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Type: Discussion • Score: 15 • Views: 5,318 • Replies: 26

[+4] - glitterbag - 02/02/2014[quote="Foofie"] Not quibbling. Jewish Semites lost their pedigree a long time ago. Ashkenazim is more scientific. Feel free to avoid me. We are of different archetypes. Would I be...

I saw that. I always liked him as an actor.

Rest in Peace.

1 Reply

@ossobuco,

I remember him in the movie Deep Impact. May he rest in peace.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

I had such a crush on him.

1 Reply

@chai2,

He was quite handsome in his day.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

Didn't know he was still alive, because I hadn't seen any of his movies for such a long time, and didn't hear anything about him for decades. RIP

1 Reply

@cicerone imposter,

He did a lot of movies in Europe, cicerone!
Was handsome in his old age too!

http://upv.tripod.com/maximilian_schell.jpg

1 Reply

@CalamityJane,

I used to confuse Omar Sharif's (good) looks with Schell's looks. Here's a link to Omar's image:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001725/?ref_=nv_sr_1

1 Reply

@Ragman,

and earlier -

I see how you could mix them up. Me, never..

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@ossobuco,

IMHO, both the images online of the younger actors and older actors respective images display similarly to me. They're distinctly different looking at certain poses. You know me...I'm imaginative sort of guy.

Fer-instance, Omar has a cleft chin and a gap between his teeth (and has Arabic) characteristics, whereas Schell does not. Schell has European/Germanic features. In my mind's eye, I could see some director wanting to cast one for the other if an imaginary movie was made about one of them.

2 Replies

In the German-speaking countries, Maximilian Schell has always been the kid brother of Maria ... until he made a documentary about her, showing her with her dementia.

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@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

Fer-instance, Omar has a cleft chin and a gap between his teeth (and has Arabic) characteristics, whereas Schell does not. Schell has European/Germanic features.

I've only known Europeans that can discern physical features based on nationality. I cannot. I can differentiate few nationalities. I must be less bigoted than people think I am? Ain't that a revoltin' development.

Possibly I have Superman's x-ray vision, and am just seeing their DNA from centuries of mixing in Europe? I am also losing my ability to discern Asians? They are starting to look Eurasian to me?

I am even starting to see white ancestry in American Blacks?

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@Walter Hinteler,

[Edit: Directing this to Foofie or all. I'm too lazy to switch]
An individual can describe someone as having Teutonic or Nordic etc., features without getting accused or labeled with a racist tag. That is not placing a judgment (at Nuremburg or elsewhere) on someone.

For example, I readily admit to looking Semitic and I'm descended (parents etc.) from Jews. Other people who are familiar with my face also would and do say so. What does all that prove? nothing except...an observation. I have certain characteristic a majority of others identify with a certain set of physical and/or facial characteristic of Semites and/or Jews.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

An individual can describe someone as having Teutonic or Nordic etc., features without getting accused or labeled with a racist tag.

For example, I readily admit to looking Semitic and I'm descended (parents etc.) from Jews. Other people who are familiar with my face also would and do say so. What does all that prove? nothing except...an observation. I have certain characteristic a majority of others identify with a certain set of physical and/or facial characteristic of Semites and/or Jews.

In my opinion, your countenance is Ashkenazi. However, your DNA has a good chance of having the Y Chromosome=middle eastern (male); X Chromosome=European (female)

Most Ashkenazim are hybrids to be scientific. They can have blond hair, but not straight. They can have blue eyes, but possibly set closer than Nordic blue eyes. Male patterned baldness (not a Semitic trait). Tall (not a Semitic trait). Big boned (not a Semitic trait). Intelligence (not actually a Semitic trait, but likely picked up from intermarriages, since their was an emphasis on marrying intelligence).

Jews, in my opinion, lost their Semitic pedigree during the Diaspora. [Foofie sings, "Just One of Those Things."]

1 Reply

@Foofie,

FWIW, this sort of interaction is why I tend to avoid direct interaction with you. Not to be snarky but that sort of discussion drifts off the actual discussion at hand (heaven forbid) and comes off as a bit pedantic as my purpose here is not to quibble over semantics over Semitics. Such sort of racial discussions Ashkenazic or Sephardic and such distinctions are an aside.

The point being that discussion of features are not about a prejudice. Attempts at such discussions are an obfuscation.

1 Reply

@Ragman,

Ragman wrote:

FWIW, this sort of interaction is why I tend to avoid direct interaction with you. Not to be snarky but that sort of discussion drifts off the actual discussion at hand (heaven forbid) and comes off as a bit pedantic as my purpose here is not to quibble over semantics over Semitics.

Not quibbling. Jewish Semites lost their pedigree a long time ago. Ashkenazim is more scientific. Feel free to avoid me. We are of different archetypes. Would I be correct that your family hailed from Germany?

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@Foofie,

I'm well aware about Jewish history and the social (and genetic) effects that Diaspora had on Jews who are Ashkenazics and/or Sephardics. However, that doesn't discuss Schell's excellent acting ability or his ability to ride a camel out of a Camelot, new or used.

My family? Not Germany at all. No

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@Ragman,

I'm teasing.. I'm a woman, I wouldn't mix them up..
They are both very good looking and very good actors, and as far as I know, very good humans, with similar looks.

1 Reply

@Walter Hinteler,

Oh, I remember the beautiful Maria. I haven't remembered that she got dementia, but now that you mention it, I think I do.

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@Foofie,

Foofie wrote:

Not quibbling. Jewish Semites lost their pedigree a long time ago. Ashkenazim is more scientific. Feel free to avoid me. We are of different archetypes. Would I be correct that your family hailed from Germany?

Foofie, sometimes you are so exasperating. I don't know where you got your nutty theory regarding Pedigree of humans but I find it offensive, intrusive and proof that however you think you stack up on the human scale of perfection, I think we can all agree your ancestors never married into intelligence.

Once again another RIP thread deteriorates because a crackpot wants to spout nonsense on a imaginary topic, human pedigree.

I remember Maximilian Schell most vividly from Judgement at Nuremberg. That movie showcased some of the best talent at the time, and although I wanted to dislike Shell, he was definitely one of the most handsome men I have ever laid eyes on. His performance was perfection as was Spencer Tracy, Judy Garland and Marlena (spellcheck is screwing up her last name).

Rest in peace, Max

1 Reply

Maximilian Schell, Oscar-Winning Actor, Dies at 83

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