Maria Margarethe Anna Schell (15 January 1926 â€" 26 April 2005) was
an Austrian-Swiss actress. She ranged among the stars of German cinema
in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, she was awarded the Cannes Best
Actress Award for her performance in Helmut Käutner's war drama The
Last Bridge, and in 1956, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at
the Venice Film Festival for Gervaise.Schell was born in the Austrian
capital Vienna, the daughter of actress Margarethe (née Noé von
Nordberg; 1905â€"1995), who ran an acting school, and Hermann
Ferdinand Schell (1900â€"1972), a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright,
and owner of a pharmacy. Her parents were Roman Catholics. She was the
older sister of actor Maximilian Schell and lesser-known actors Carl
Schell (1927-2019) and Immaculata "Immy" Schell (1935-1992).After the
Anschluss in 1938, her family moved to Zürich in Switzerland. Maria
Schell began commercial training, but soon entered the film business
when she met the Swiss actor and director Sigfrit Steiner.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. After World War II, she was cast in her
first leading role in the 1948 film The Angel with the Trumpet,
directed by Karl Hartl. She starred in such films as The Magic Box,
Dr. Holl (1951), So Little Time (1952), The Heart of the Matter
(1953). Her emotional acting earned her the nickname Seelchen ("little
soul"), coined by her colleague Oskar Werner.
an Austrian-Swiss actress. She ranged among the stars of German cinema
in the 1950s and 1960s. In 1954, she was awarded the Cannes Best
Actress Award for her performance in Helmut Käutner's war drama The
Last Bridge, and in 1956, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at
the Venice Film Festival for Gervaise.Schell was born in the Austrian
capital Vienna, the daughter of actress Margarethe (née Noé von
Nordberg; 1905â€"1995), who ran an acting school, and Hermann
Ferdinand Schell (1900â€"1972), a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright,
and owner of a pharmacy. Her parents were Roman Catholics. She was the
older sister of actor Maximilian Schell and lesser-known actors Carl
Schell (1927-2019) and Immaculata "Immy" Schell (1935-1992).After the
Anschluss in 1938, her family moved to Zürich in Switzerland. Maria
Schell began commercial training, but soon entered the film business
when she met the Swiss actor and director Sigfrit Steiner.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. After World War II, she was cast in her
first leading role in the 1948 film The Angel with the Trumpet,
directed by Karl Hartl. She starred in such films as The Magic Box,
Dr. Holl (1951), So Little Time (1952), The Heart of the Matter
(1953). Her emotional acting earned her the nickname Seelchen ("little
soul"), coined by her colleague Oskar Werner.
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