Maria Schell
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Maria Schell (born January 15, 1926 in Vienna; died April 26, 2005 in Preitenegg, Carinthia) was an Austrian actress. Born Margarete Schell to a Swiss author and an Austrian actress, she was the older sister of actor Maximilian Schell, and lesser-known actors Carl Schell, and Immy (Immaculata) Schell.
She starred in such films as The Heart of the Matter (1953), Gervaise (1956), Le Notti Bianche (1957), The Brothers Karamazov (1958) playing the role of Grushenka, The Hanging Tree (1959), Cimarron (1960), and Superman: The Movie (1978). She starred opposite everyone from Yul Brynner to Gary Cooper to Marlon Brando. She also had three guest appearances in the television series, Der Kommissar. Her final public appearance was at the premiere of Maximilian's 2002 documentary My Sister Maria.
Schell was married twice, first to Horst Hächler and later to Veit Relin. Her daughter by her second marriage, actress Marie Theres Kroetz-Relin (born 1966), who is married to Bavarian playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz, has recently made a media and Internet appearance as a spokeswoman for housewives (If Pigs Could Fly. Die Hausfrauenrevolution, 2004).
Burdened with old age and illness, Maria Schell lived as a recluse in Carinthia in the Austrian Alps until her death from pneumonia in Preitenegg, Austria on April 26, 2005. Upon her death, Maximilian released a statement saying in part: "Towards the end of her life, she suffered silently and I never heard her complain. I admire her for that. Her death might have been for her a salvation. But not for me. She is irreplaceable."
