Maximilian Schell was an Austrian and Swiss film and stage actor, who also wrote, directed and produced some of his own films. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1961 American film Judgment at Nuremberg, his second acting role in Hollywood. His parents were involved in the arts and he grew up surrounded by acting and literature. While he was a child, his family was forced to flee Vienna in 1938 when Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany, and they settled in Zurich, Switzerland. After World War II ended, Schell took up acting or directing full-time. He appeared in numerous German films, often anti-war, before moving on to Hollywood. Schell was top billed in a number of Nazi-era themed films, as he could speak both English and German. Among those were two films for which he received Oscar nominations: The Man in the Glass Booth, where he played a character with two identities, and Julia, where he helps the underground in Nazi Germany. His range of acting went beyond German characters, however, and during his career, he also played personalities as diverse as Venezuelan leader Sim�n Bol�var, Russian emperor Peter the Great, and scientist Albert Einstein. 

December 8th, 1930 in Vienna  /  Died:   Feb 1st, 2014 - aged 83