I REMEMBER HIM WELL -- MAXIMILLIAN SCHELL Im sad to report that a former boy-friend, actor Maximilian Schell died Feb. 1. In poor health from diabetes, he took ill in Kitzbuhel, where he was filming for a German channel. He was born in Vienna, on December 9, 1930, but his family escaped to Switzerland until after the war. I always remembered his birthday because mine was December 5. We joked about being under the sign of the schutze - Sagittarius the archer. He had broken just off with Empress Saroya of Iran and was fancy free at the time we met on a plane that was about to crash. He started acting at the age of 23 but spent a long time in the shadow of his adorable older sister, actress Maria Schell (Brothers Karamazov, etc.) She was retired and living in Linz with her family when I knew him. He modestly declared he remained in her shadow all of his life. His devotion to his sister was apparent in 2002 when he produced an intimate documentary, entitled My Sister Maria, chronicling her life, career and struggle with illness. Maximillian made his Hollywood debut in 1958 at 28 years old, acting beside Marlon Brando in The Young Lions. But it was in 1961 that he made his real breakthrough with his role as a lawyer for a Nazi war criminal in Stanley Kramers Judgment at Nuremberg, which won him the Academy Award, beating out Spencer Tracy for for best actor. The story is that on the first day of shooting, Tracy saw Maximillian doing a scene and turned to Richard Widmark and said: Watch out, that actor is going to give us a run for the Oscar. Judgement of Nuremburg was a powerful, classic movie, and what performances -- Schell, Burt Lancaster, Marlene Dietrich, Tracy and Widmark, Montgomery Cliff and Judy Garland. I found Maximillian to be a unique and electrifying personality in real life. It was as if talent flowed through his veins to his fingerprints. An odd description, I know, but true. Talent seemed to ooze out of him. I am sorry about the recent photos on the international obits. He did not age well, due to illness. I remember him as the devastatingly handsome black haired actor in his prime, who loved art, had an art degree, and a fine collection at his home in Munich. He was also a champion skier with strong legs and a competitive spirit. I never heard him play the piano but he was considered exceptionally talented. I once presented him with some letters of popular 19th and 18th century European pianists which he much appreciated - they were-part of an auction lot which secured Clara Vieck Schumanns (greatest female pianist, married to Robert and beloved of Brahms) letter for my personal collection. Maximillian, it turned out, also collected historical documents and letters. I met the actor the year he was nominated for best foreign film, for directing and writing Erste Liebling (First Love) which was shot behind the iron curtain, in Hungary, as I recall. It was the dangerous plane ride that introduced us; it made an emergency landing instead of crashing. Maximillian was going to NYC to appear on the Johnny Carson Show and then to California for the Oscar Ceremony (he didnt win). I was returning to New York from my farmhouse in Austria. Our eyes met, as the better novels put it!, in the Heathrow restaurant waiting for another flight. We exchanged numbers. Our first date was in New York. Our next meeting was in Vienna where he was starring in the German version of a Harold Pinter play Alten Zeiten (Olden Times) at the Academie Theatre. I used to wait backstage for him to finish and we would then ride around Vienna in his open air sports car. He liked to go to artists cafes and socialize. His apartment was on Schellgasse, named for his family. (His father was a playwright and his mother a ballerina.) The building was pre-war with one of those noisy, iron, cage-like elevators you see in old films. Maximillian loved to read the many Austrian newspapers every morning and he insisted that hot water be poured into the tea pot first, to warm it, before adding the tea leaves. He also improved my pronunciation of Viennese folk songs (my passion at the time) which eventually made everyone think I was exceptionally fluent. I wasnt. I recall the greatest German actor of Shakespeare, peering over his cup of tea, and saying to me, Sing, dont speak German, you sound like a milkmaid. Which was true. My little Austrian village had a distinct accent that was quite rural! And it was there I picked up speaking German. LOL Maxim also starred in the heist movie Topkapi. Then followed two other films which garnered him Oscar nominations, The Man in the Glass Booth and later Julia, with Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Fonda. He also produced, directed and starred in the End of the Game, a German crime movie starring Jon Voight, which led to his being named godfather to Voights daughter Angelina Jolie. Everytime I sing my Austrian songs at a Viennese Heurligen (wine cafe) I think of him and his divine face, unruly hair, and sensitive expression. It is more than a girl could dream of!
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 00:36:58 +0000
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