Maria Margarethe Anna Schell (15 January 1926, Vienna - 26 April 2005, Preitenegg, Carinthia) was an Austrian actress.
The dauthter of 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 played Mother Maria in the sequel to Lilies of the Field called Christmas Lilies of the Field. She starred opposite such actors as Yul Brynner, Gary Cooper and Marlon Brando. She also had three guest appearances in the television series, Der Kommissar. Her final public appearance was at the premiere of her brother Maximilian's documentary film, My Sister Maria (2002).
Schell was married twice, first to Horst Hächler and second to Veit Relin. Her daughter by her second marriage, actress Marie Theres Relin (born 1966), who is married to Bavarian playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz and has three children, made a media and Internet appearance as a spokeswoman for housewives (If Pigs Could Fly. Die Hausfrauenrevolution, 2004).
In an episode of Der Kommissar
Maria Schell lived reclusively in ill health in Carinthia in the Austrian Alps until her death from pneumonia in Preitenegg, Austria on April 26, 2005, aged 79.
Upon her death, Maximilian Schell 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."
