He was considered one of cinema's greats, but at the age of 83 and after a 'sudden but serious illness', Maximilian Schell has passed away.
A refugee from Nazi Germany, he and his family escaped to Switzerland and he eventually followed his love of acting to Hollywood in 1958. Three years later he appeared in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg for which he won an Oscar for his role as a defese attorney hans Rolfe dictating the fate of four Nazi judges who had sent people to their death during the war. It remained a signature role in a long career that included other memorable films such as 1958's The Young Lions (with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift) The Odessa File (974), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and as Captain Stransky in Cross of Iron (1977).
He would receive more acting Academy Award nominations for Arthur Miller's The Man in the Glass Booth (1975) and 1977's Julia, directed by Fred Zinnemann, starring opposite Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave. He also became an accomplished director with First Love (1970) and The Pedestrian (1973) being nominated for Best Foreign Picture and Marlene (1984) being nominated for Best Documentary.
Younger cinema-goers will remember him from a wide range commercial blockbusters including The Black Hole (1979), Deep Impact (1998) and John Carpenter's Vampires (1998). He was not shy of continuing to work in television when he liked a project and made apperances in six episodes of Wiseguy and also Peter the Saint, Joan of Arc, the HBO mini-series Stalin and Giganten (playing Albert Einstein).
His last project, Les Brigands, will be released later this year.
