1. Maria Margarethe Anna Schell was an Austrian-Swiss actress.
16 Facts About Maria Schell
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Maria Schell was one of the leading stars of German cinema in the 1950s and 1960s.
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Maria Schell was the older sister of actor Maximilian Schell and lesser-known actors Carl Schell and Immaculata "Immy" Schell.
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Maria Schell began commercial training, but soon entered the film business when she met the Swiss actor and director Sigfrit Steiner.
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Maria Schell premiered in Steiner's 1942 film Steibruch, side by side with the well-known Swiss actor Heinrich Gretler, and took acting lessons for several theatre engagements.
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Maria Schell starred in such films as The Magic Box, Dr Holl, So Little Time, The Heart of the Matter.
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Maria Schell's emotional acting earned her the nickname Seelchen, coined by her colleague Oskar Werner.
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The 1956 film Gervaise directed by Rene Clement was a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; while in Hollywood, Maria Schell met with Yul Brynner, who urged for her casting in The Brothers Karamazov in the role of Grushenka.
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Maria Schell starred with Gary Cooper in The Hanging Tree, and with Glenn Ford in Cimarron.
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In 1970, Maria Schell starred opposite Christopher Lee in The Bloody Judge by Jesus Franco.
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Maria Schell appeared on stage, including an acclaimed performance in the 1976 Broadway play Poor Murderer by Pavel Kohout and the leading role in Friedrich Durrenmatt's play The Visit with the Schauspielhaus Zurich ensemble.
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Maria Schell's daughter by her second marriage, actress Marie Theres Relin was born on 1966), was married to Bavarian playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz, and has three children; she made a media and internet appearance as a spokeswoman for housewives (If Pigs Could Fly.
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Maria Schell admitted to carrying on a passionate love affair with Glenn Ford in 1960 on location of their film Cimarron.
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In 1981, Maria Schell gave Ford a dachshund puppy which he named Bismarck.
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Maria Schell attempted suicide in 1991, and suffered repeated strokes.
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Maria Schell lived reclusively in the remote village of Preitenegg, Carinthia, in the Austrian Alps until her death from pneumonia on 26 April 2005, aged 79.