Biography
Maximilian Shell is an Austrian artist, the owner of Oscar and the Golden Globe. He tried himself in different fields of cinematography, including documentary, and succeeded, to this day, remaining one of the most famous German-speaking actors.Childhood and youth
Maximilian Shell was born in Vienna on December 8, 1930 and became the younger of four children in the family. The parents of the boy belonged to the creative intelligentsia and were immigrants from different countries, so Maximilian has a mixed nationality. Father Herman Ferdinand Shell is a native of Switzerland, known as a writer, poet and playwright. Mother Margaret Nae von Nordberg was an Austrian actress.
Subsequently, all children of the Shell family - Maria, Karl, IMMI and Maximilian - chose an acting path for themselves.
Maximilian's father did not want children to work as acting - was afraid that such a life would not bring happiness. But the theatrical work of the mother largely predetermined the choice of Shell. He remembered how Margaret was preparing for performances, and in 3 years he himself went on the stage of the Viennese theater.
In 1938, Nazi Germany annexed Austria, and Shella to flee from Hitler, the whole family moved to Switzerland, in Zurich.
In childhood, Maximilian did not think about the theater career - he loved to read the boy, he studied the game on the piano and believed that he would become an artist or a musician or a playwright. The first play under the impression of the work of Father Shell wrote at 9 years old.
Having finished school, Maximilian studied at Zurich University, where he played football and was a member of the university rowing team. At the same time, he earned with a freelance journalist. After the end of the war, he moved to Germany, where in Munich University studied philosophy and history of arts.
Then the young man returned to Zurich, the year served in the Swiss army, and a year again studied at the University of Zurich and six months - in Basel. After that, the studies of Maximilian bored - he decided that scientific accuracy could only prevent scientific accuracy. At the same time, Shell realized that the writing was not his calling, acting acting and began to play in the Basel theater.
Films
The actor's filmmaker was the anti-war film "Children, Mother and General", where Shell fulfilled the role of a German officer of the Second World War, who deserted from the battlefield. This film was for a long time defined the acting profile Maximilian, who starred later in many paintings of military topics, including "young lions". In this tape, Shell first appeared on the Hollywood screen.
In 1960, a man returned to Germany, where Hamlet was played in Telplekact on the play of Shakespeare's plays. His performance of the role of Prince Danish is considered one of the best, along with the work of Lawrence Olivier.
In 1961, Maximilian was invited to the role of a lawyer in the law drama "Nuremberg Process" about the court over Nazi criminals, which became key in his biography. Critics were admired by how the actor portrayed a man trying to blame for the Holocaust of anyone, except for his client. For this role, he received both Oscar and the Golden Globe. According to the actor's biographer, during the preparation of Shell reread a huge number of available documents of the Nuremberg process.
In the future, Maximilian filmography included such films about the war, like the "Little Odessa", "Iron Cross" and "Diary Anna Frank", in which Shell has already played no German, and the Jewish - Otto, the Father Girls. Then the artist turned to Jewish roles repeatedly: in 1989, in the film "Pink Garden" performed the role of Aaron, the former prisoner of Auschwitz, in 1997 played the father of the Jewish family in the drama "Left baggage".
The most difficult role on the topic of fascism and the Holocaust was Arthur Goldman from the "man in a glass booth." Maximilian had to reincarnate in the Jew, which is so offended by the humility of his people in the face of cruelty, which after the war due to insane behavior in it is suspected not to the victim of the Holocaust, and the hiding Nazi criminal.
In order not to become an actor of one role and not "stuck" in a military topic, Shell played various heroes, showing all the verge of skill. His account of his role Vladimir Lenin, Peter the Great, Egyptian Pharaoh and many other characters, not similar to each other. In 1981, Maximilian appeared in the next adaptation of the "Ghost Opera" Gaston Lerre, where he played the ghost himself. The interpretation of the plot is far from classical, but Shell's character turned out to be as close as possible to the book prototype.
As director, Maximilian was also successful: the film "Pedestrian" in 1974 received the "Golden Globe" and was nominated for Oscar as the best foreign film.
As Docunerist Shell worked on the creation of the "Marlene" painting, a documentary film about Marlene Dietrich. The movie turned out to be problematic, although they deserved a nomination for Oscar: Dietrich first agreed to shoot, but then changed his mind and banned the use of already footed material in the film.
The most personal, intimate, work Maximilian was the painting "My sister Maria" about Mary Shell, his native sister of the actor. For this ribbon, the brother and sister received the German television award "Bambi".
Shell continued to take off until the end of life both in European and Hollywood cinema. The last film with the participation of the actor - the criminal drama "Robbers", went out on the screens after the death of Maximilian, in 2015.
Personal life
In his youth, Maximilian was fond of piano and, matured, retained the love of music. The famous Conductor Leonard Bernstein argued that Shell was an excellent pianist. The man gave concerts with the Viennese and Berlin orchestras, participated in operas.
The personal life of the artist was not so harmonious as a career. In the 1960s, the press enthusiastically discussed Roman Maximilian with the coolant Esfandiari Bakhtiai, before that, there was a matter of the last Iranian Shah. After the separation of Shells with the ex-queen, rumors were walking about the connection of a man with a dark-skinned supermodel Donel Moon.
In 1985, on the set of the series "Peter Great" Shell met the Soviet actress Natalia Andreichenko, on which he married in 1986. In this marriage, the daughter was born Nastasya, also Maximilian adopted Dmitry, Natalia's child from the first marriage. There is a lot of photo of Shell with both children. Also, the actor has a godfather daughter - famous Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie.
In 2002, the pair was reversible in 2005 to officially divorce; Nastasya after the divorce chose to stay with his father. The initiator of the divorce was Maximilian, who met Elizabeth Mahich, a gallery from Vienna for 47 years hence.
After the end of this novel, in 2008, Shell fell asleep with the opera singer Ivaway Mikhanovich, who became his last love. On August 20, 2013, the couple officially registered relations.
After the death of Maximilian Shell, relatives could not share the inheritance for a long time: he was claimed both the daughter of the actor and his wife and nephews.
Death
At the end of his life, Shell suffered from pain in his back. January 18, 2014 fell during the shooting period, being in one of the hotels in Kitzbühel. After hospitalization, the actor discovered pneumonia, but they said that Maximilian would recover within 10 days.
Nevertheless, on January 30, the actors were placed in the hospital of Innsbruck, where they conducted an operation due to pains in the back. Surgical intervention has passed successfully, but the actor never woke up. Maximilian Shell died on February 1, 2014. The cause of death, presumably, became complications from anesthesia.
Filmography
- 1955 - "Children, Mother and General"
- 1958 - "Young Lions"
- 1961 - "Nuremberg Process"
- 1969 - "Simon Bolivar"
- 1973 - "Pedestrian"
- 1975 - "Man in a glass booth"
- 1980 - "Diary Anna Frank"
- 1983 - "Phantom Opera"
- 1985 - "Peter Great"
- 1994 - "Little Odessa"
- 1997 - "Left Luggage"
- 1998 - "Collision with Abyss"
- 2001 - "Lyonka Song"
- 2006 - "House Sleeping Beauty"
- 2015 - "Robbers"