 MAXIMILIAN SCHELL. The ”Oscar“ winner is considered the most distinguished
German language actor. He continuously personifies people with dignity – constantly
in search of justice.
He has achieved everything an actor can achieve. Maximilian Schell has played Hamlet,
Faust and Everyman at the Salzburg Festival, Emperor Peter the Great and Lenin. He won the
coveted ”Oscar“ and was nominated a further two times for the Academy Award. He
has been awarded several ”Golden Globes“ and received the prestigious ”New
York Film Critics Award“. He has been cast along side Marlon Brando, Burt Lancaster,
Peter Ustinov and Marlene Dietrich. Recently he starred with Morgan Freeman in the
Hollywood movie ”Deep Impact“ and in John Carpenters ”Vampires“.
These are just a few of the reasons that Maximilian Schell is considered the most
distinguished German language actor. Above all, one thing characterizes him as an actor:
he virtually always portrays people with dignity, constantly in search of justice –
just like in real life.
Schell’s parents fled from the Nazis to Switzerland. His rapid rise to stardom was
also heavily intertwined with the Holocaust. For his brilliant portrayal of a defense
lawyer in Stanley Kramer’s ”Judgement at Nuremberg“ Schell was awarded an
”Oscar“. Kramer’s courtroom drama, based on a script by Abby Mann, in
which the Nazi legal system was put on trial is, to this day, considered a milestone in the confrontation with the Holocaust. The
story about guilt and historical responsibility, perpetrators and victims, accomplices and
witnesses was a break with convention because it avoided the stereotyping in black and
white and the usual cliches.
In March 2001 Maximilian Schell stood on a Broadway stage in a reenactment of a story that
has left its mark on his life. However this time not in the role of the defending lawyer
Hans Rolfe but as an accused Nazi judge. |
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 ACADEMY AWARD & GOLDEN GLOBE WINNER. He is considered one of the
most distinguished German language actors. He has portrayed Hamlet, Faust, Peter the
Great and Lenin. |
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| JUSTICE. He has chosen rolls in which he portrays people with dignity
– in search of justice. |
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