Maximilian Schell 1930-2014
Maximilian Schell in Sidney Lumet's "The Deadly Affair" (1966).
The Austrian-born actor who became a Hollywood favorite and won an Oscar for his role as a defense attorney in "Judgment at Nuremberg" died Saturday, February 1, 2014 in Innsbruck following a "sudden and serious illness," the Austria Press Agency reported. He was 83.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
"The Young Lions"
The son of Swiss playwright Hermann Ferdinand Schell and Austrian stage actress Noe von Nordberg, Maximilian Schell was born in Vienna on Dec. 8, 1930 and raised in Switzerland after his family fled Germany's annexation of his homeland. He followed in the footsteps of his older sister Maria and brother Carl, making his stage debut in 1952. He then appeared in a number of German films before relocating to Hollywood in 1958.
Schell made his Hollywood debut in the World War II drama, "The Young Lions," starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.
"Hamlet"
"Judgment at Nuremberg"
Schell earned international stardom in his second Hollywood role, as defense attorney Hans Rolfe in Stanley Kramer's 1961 classic, "Judgment at Nuremberg" (left, with Richard Widmark). Recreating the role he originally played in a 1959 episode of "Playhouse 90," Schell's impassioned but unsuccessful defense of four Nazi judges on trial for sentencing innocent victims to death won him the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Academy Award
"The Condemned of Altona"
"Five Finger Exercise"
"Topkapi"
Maximilian Schell and Melina Mercouri starred in "Topkapi" (1964), Jules Dassin's heist film about a robbery of the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul.
"Return From the Ashes"
"The Castle"
Maximilian Schell starred as K in a 1968 West German adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Castle."
Schell produced "The Castle," as well as two dramas nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Film: the Swiss film "First Love" (1970), and "The Pedestrian" (1973), from West Germany.
"Counterpoint"
Maximilian Schell starred as a German general and Charlton Heston as an orchestra conductor whose musicians are imprisoned by the Nazis in "Counterpoint" (1968).
"The Odessa File"
In the 1974 film version of Frederick Forsyth's thriller, "The Odessa File," Maximilian Schell played a former Nazi officer who becomes the target three decades later of a dangerous search by a journalist (Jon Voight).
"The Man in the Glass Booth"
Though typecast as Nazis in several films, Maximilian Schell received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his performance in "The Man in the Glass Booth" (1975), adapted from the stage play by Robert Shaw. Schell plays a Jewish Holocaust survivor who is kidnapped and put on trial as a Nazi war criminal.
"Julia"
"Cross of Iron"
"The Black Hole"
"Peter the Great"
"Marlene"
Maximilian Schell directed the 1984 documentary "Marlene," about film legend Marlene Dietrich (with whom he'd appeared in "Judgment at Nuremberg"). Because the reclusive actress refused to appear on camera, Schell used audio recordings of his interviews with her, and then recreated her Paris apartment, as a stage set haunted by her voice. The film received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary.
"The Freshman"
"A Far Off Place"
"Little Odessa"
In James Gray's 1995 crime film, "Little Odessa," Maximilian Schell played the father of a hitman (Tim Roth) working in the Jewish Russian emigre community in Brooklyn. Edward Furlong (right), of "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," co-starred.
Vienna
Munich
Dresden
Actor Maximilian Schell attends the 2nd annual Semper Opera Ball January 19, 2007 in Dresden, Germany. Schell was also a highly successful concert pianist and conductor, performing with such luminaries as Claudio Abbado and Leonard Bernstein, and with orchestras in Berlin and Vienna.
His late film appearances include ''Telling Lies in America," "Deep Impact, and the HBO "Stalin," for which he earned a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Lenin.
His last film work was "Les Brigands," currently in post-production.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan; The Associated Press contributed to this report.