Maria Schell
Actress Maria Schell died yesterday, April 26, of heart failure in her sleep in the Austrian town of Preitenegg. She was 79.
During the course of more than five decades, the unbelievably pretty, wide-eyed Schell (born in Vienna on Jan. 15, 1926) appeared in dozens of films — often as sweet and innocent Mädchen — in her native Austria, as well as in Germany, France, Italy, and the United States. Her most famous film role is probably that of the hardworking laundress surrounded by drunks in Gervaise, René Clément’s 1956 adaptation of Emile Zola’s L’Assommoir.
Among Schell’s other important films were Luchino Visconti’s romantic Le Notti bianche / White Nights (1957), with Schell as the young and innocent girl in love with Jean Marais but loved by Marcello Mastroianni; Richard Brooks‘ messy adaptation of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov (1958), with Yul Brynner; and Delmer Daves‘ moving, beautifully shot Western The Hanging Tree (1959), in which Schell gives a superb performance as the young woman in Gary Cooper’s life.
Also, Anthony Mann’s sprawling Western Cimarron (1960), as Glenn Ford’s devoted wife; The Mark (1961), opposite Academy Award nominee Stuart Whitman; and Géza von Radványi’s solid family drama Das Riesenrad / The Giant Ferris Wheel (1961), with frequent co-star O. W. Fischer – with whom Schell was romantically linked.
Among her later film appearances are small roles in Ronald Neame’s The Odessa File (1974), which stars Jon Voight and Maria’s brother, Maximilian Schell; Superman (1978), as Vond-Ah; and the 2002 documentary Meine Schwester Maria / My Sister Maria, directed by her brother.
In 1954, Schell won a Best Actress award at the Cannes Film Festival for her portrayal of Helga Reinbeck in Die Letzte Brücke / The Last Bridge.
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