Neuigkeiten

Moms loved actor Robert Shaw. He wasn’t traditionally handsome, but he was sexy with his piercing blue eyes and forceful British accent. There was a gravatas to his performances, a danger that was appealing to women of a certain age. And he knew how to make an entrance on the big screen. Who could forget his introduction as the fanatical shark hunter Quint in the 1975 blockbuster “Jaws” when he runs his fingernails down the blackboard. He was the bad boy of many a mother’s dreams in the 1970s.

Let’s face it, they don’t make them like Shaw anymore. In its 1978 obit of the British actor, the Washington Post declared him as “one of the most forceful and successful character actors on the contemporary English-speaking screen.” He was also a true renaissance man having written five novels and three plays. He was writing his sixth novel when...

It’s been nearly five decades since Jaws hit movie screens in the summer of 1975 and still the image of three men trapped on a boat in the middle of the ocean at the mercy of a great white shark remains potent in our collective consciousness. A new play on Broadway, The Shark Is Broken, evokes memories of the classic Steven Spielberg blockbuster—minus the shark. The comedy drama, now playing at the Golden Theatre, relates the behind-the-scenes story of how the film’s three lead actors—Robert Shaw, Roy Scheider, and Richard Dreyfuss—spent their imposed breaks in between takes over the long weeks when shooting was frequently stalled whenever one of the several animatronic shark models invariably malfunctioned.

The Shark Is Broken is the brainchild of Ian Shaw. His charismatic father, Robert, is the Oscar-nominated actor who’s best remembered for his portrayal in Jaws of Quint, the...

F. Murray Abraham is an American actor born on October 24, 1939 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

F. Murray Abraham. Depostiphotos

He is best known for his Academy Award-winning role as Antonio Salieri in the 1984 film “Amadeus.”

Abraham started his career in theater and made his Broadway debut in the play “The Man in the Glass Booth” in 1968.

He has appeared in over 100 films and TV shows throughout his career, including “Scarface,” “Homeland,” and “Star Trek: Insurrection.”

In addition to acting, Abraham is also a voice actor and has lent his voice to several animated TV shows and movies.

He has received numerous awards and nominations for his work, including a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for “Amadeus.”

Abraham is of Syrian descent on his father’s side and Italian descent on his mother’s side.

He is also a skilled accordion player and has played the instrument...

“A Nazi Or Not-zi?”

By Raymond Benson

Back in 1973, producer Ely Landau and his wife Edie launched a daring and unprecedented cinema series that played in the U.S. for two “seasons,” with a total of fourteen titles (but only thirteen were shown), all renowned works—classic and modern—originally produced on the stage. It was called the American Film Theatre. (A review of a DVD box set of the entire series appeared on Cinema Retro Here.)

The concept tried something different. The directive was to take a great stage play, not change a word, and in most cases, use the actual play script as the screenplay. The next step was to hire an accomplished film director to interpret the text for the film medium but stay faithful to the play. Sometimes the director was the same person who helmed the original stage production. A further step was to persuade...

Connie Sawyer, the oldest working member of the Screen Actors Guild and the Academy, has died. She was 105.

The actress died peacefully at her home in Woodland Hills, California, according to Deadline. She had previously resided at the Motion Picture & Television Fund’s residential community for entertainment industry retirees in Los Angeles.

A rep for Sawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment from People.

The Pueblo, Colorado, native, who was born on November 27, 1912, made audiences laugh since before the television was even invented, first starring in vaudeville shows when she was just a child.

She later landed...

'Making Love': Groundbreaking romantic gay drama returns to the big screen As part of its Anniversary Classics series, Laemmle Theaters will be presenting Arthur Hiller's groundbreaking 1982 romantic drama Making Love, the first U.S. movie distributed by a major studio that focused on a romantic gay relationship. Michael Ontkean, Harry Hamlin, and Kate Jackson star. The 35th Anniversary Screening of Making Love will be held on Saturday, June 24 – it's Gay Pride month, after all – at 7:30 p.m. at the Ahrya Fine Arts Theatre on Wilshire Blvd. in Beverly Hills. The movie will be followed by a Q&A session with Harry Hamlin, screenwriter Barry Sandler, and author A. Scott Berg, who wrote the “story” on which the film is based. 'Making Love' & What lies beneath In this 20th Century Fox release – Sherry Lansing was the studio head at the time – Michael Ontkean plays a...

"The Godfather" star Abe Vigoda‬ has died, aged 94.

The character actor passed away in his sleep at his home in New Jersey on Tuesday morning (January 26), his daughter Carol Vigoda Fuchs tells The Associated Press.

The Brooklyn, New York native began acting in the theatre as a teen and went on to establish himself with parts in Broadway productions of Marat/Sade, The Man in the Glass Booth, Inquest, and Tough to Get Help.

However, his breakout role came after he was cast as veteran mobster Salvatore Tessio in Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather in 1972.

He also featured in a flashback sequence at the end of The Godfather Part II, and later became known for his portrayal of Detective Sergeant Phil Fish on 1970s sitcom Barney Miller and its spin-off series, Fish.

Vigoda's other film credits include Cannonball Run II, Look Who's Talking, and Joe Versus the Volcano.

By Lee Pfeiffer

I've long had admiration for the work of actor Robert Shaw ever since he impressed me at age 8 with his chilling interpretation of the Spectre psychotic killer Red Grant in "From Russia With Love". Shaw could always be counted on to deliver a fine performance even if the material he chose was sometimes underwhelming. Shaw was also a talented writer and playwright, having won acclaim for his play "The Man in the Glass Booth", which was inspired by the war criminal trial of Adolf Eichmann. Shaw, like many actors, participated in many questionable films in order to enable his real passion, which was to bring avante garde movie projects to fruition, even if they only appealed to the art cinema crowd. One of Shaw's most interesting vehicles is one of his least seen. "Figures in a Landscape" was his 1970 adaptation of an allegorical novel by Barry England...

Actor and director who brought dark good looks and a commanding presence to his roles

Austrian by birth, Swiss by circumstance and international by reputation, Maximilian Schell, who has died aged 83, was a distinguished actor, director, writer and producer. However, he will be best remembered as an actor, especially for his Oscar-winning performance in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) – an early highlight among scores of television and movie appearances. He also directed opera, worked tirelessly in the theatre and made six feature films, including Marlene (1984) - a tantalising portrait of Dietrich, his co-star in Judgment, who is heard being interviewed but not seen, except in movie extracts.

Schell courted controversy and much of his work, including The Pedestrian (1973), dealt with the second world war, its attendant crimes and the notion of collective guilt. In 1990, when he was offered a special award for his contributions to German film, he refused to accept it.

 

Schell with Brando in The Young Lions.

Oscar-winning Austrian actor Maximillian Schell has passed away at the age of 83. Schell made his English language screen debut opposite Marlon Brando in the WWII film The Young Lions in 1958. Three years later he won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Stanley Kramer's Judgment at Nuremberg. Schell played an attorney burdened with the thankless task of defending Nazi war criminals. The character, while repelled by the acts some individuals committed, offered a spirited defense that brought nuance to the circumstances in which National Socialism had arisen. The intelligent depiction of this sensitive subject- and Schell's impassioned performance- was praised internationally. Schell continued to be a leading man in high profile film productions including Tokapi, Counterpoint, Krakatoa: East of Java, The Odessa File, A Bridge Too Far, The Freshman, The Chosen and Deep Impact. He was nominated for Oscars two other...

Johannesburg, Feb 2: Maximilian Schell, who had won an Oscar for his role in 'Judgment at Nuremberg' in 1961, has passed away "following a sudden and serious illness". He was 83.

The Austrian-born actor's agent said that he died overnight at a hospital in Innsbruck, News24 reported.

Schell, who was a fugitive from Adolf Hitler, had received two Academy Award nominations for 'The Man in the Glass Booth' and 'Julia'.

He had also won a Golden Globe for 'The Pedestrian'. (Ani)...

Maximilian Schell movie director (photo: Maximilian Schell and Maria Schell) (See previous post: “Maximilian Schell Dies: Best Actor Oscar Winner for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg.’”) Maximilian Schell’s first film as a director was the 1970 (dubbed) German-language release First Love / Erste Liebe, adapted from Igor Turgenev’s novella, and starring Englishman John Moulder-Brown, Frenchwoman Dominique Sanda, and Schell in this tale about a doomed love affair in Czarist Russia. Italian Valentina Cortese and British Marius Goring provided support. Directed by a former Best Actor Oscar winner, First Love, a movie that could just as easily have been dubbed into Swedish or Swahili (or English), ended up nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award. Three years later, nominated in that same category was Schell’s second feature film as a director, The Pedestrian / Der Fußgänger, in which a car accident forces a German businessman to delve deep into his past.

Maximilian Schell dead at 83: Best Actor Oscar winner for ‘Judgment at Nuremberg’ (photo: Maximilian Schell ca. 1960) Actor and filmmaker Maximilian Schell, best known for his Oscar-winning performance as the defense attorney in Stanley Kramer’s 1961 political drama Judgment at Nuremberg died at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria, on February 1, 2014. According to his agent, Patricia Baumbauer, Schell died overnight following a "sudden and serious illness." Maximilian Schell was 83. Born on December 8, 1930, in Vienna, Maximilian Schell was the younger brother of future actor Carl Schell and Maria Schell, who would become an international film star in the 1950s (The Last Bridge, Gervaise, The Hanging Tree). Immy Schell, who would be featured in several television and film productions from the mid-’50s to the early ’90s, was born in 1935. Following Nazi Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938, Schell’s parents, Swiss playwright Hermann Ferdinand Schell and Austrian stage actress Margarete Schell Noé,...

Austrian who won best actor Oscar for role in Judgment at Nuremberg died at clinic in Innsbruck after sudden illness

Austrian actor Maximilian Schell, who won an Academy award for his role as a German defence attorney in the acclaimed 1961 courtroom drama Judgment at Nuremberg, has died aged 83.

The Vienna-born actor died overnight at a clinic in Innsbruck as the result of a "sudden and serious illness", his agent, Patricia Baumbauer, told the Austria Press Agency on Saturday.

One of the best-known foreign actors in Us films, Schell starred on stage and screen on both sides of the Atlantic after growing up in Switzerland, where his family settled to escape the Nazis after Germany's 1938 annexation of Austria.

The brother of actress Maria Schell, he also won a Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle award for his role in Judgment at Nuremberg, which followed a television drama version of the play.

The AP is reporting that Austrian-born actor Maximilian Schell, a fugitive from Adolf Hitler who became a Hollywood favorite and won an Oscar for his role as a defense attorney in “Judgment at Nuremberg,” has died. He was 83.

Schell’s agent, Patricia Baumbauer, said Saturday he died overnight at a hospital in the Austrian city of Innsbruck following a “sudden illness.”

It was only his second Hollywood role, as defense attorney Hans Rolfe in Stanley Kramer’s classic “Judgment at Nuremberg,” that earned him wide international acclaim. Schell’s impassioned but unsuccessful defense of four Nazi judges on trial for sentencing innocent victims to death won him the 1961 Academy Award for best actor. Schell had first played Rolfe in a 1959 episode of the television program “Playhouse 90.”

Despite being type-cast for numerous Nazi-era films, Schell’s acting performances in the mid-1970s also won him renewed popular acclaim, earning him...

One of the greats has left us, and we'd be remiss to not mention the passing of Oscar winner Maximilian Schell this morning (Feb. 1, 2014) at the age of 83 in Innsbruck, Tyrol, Austria. He didn't dabble in the horror genre often, but when he did, it was memorable.

Per the AP via ABC News, Schell's agent, Patricia Baumbauer, said Saturday he died overnight at a hospital in the Austrian city of Innsbruck following a "sudden illness."

Austrian-born Schell won his Best Actor Oscar in 1962 for Judgment at Nuremberg (1961) and also appeared in such genre fare as Deep Impact, The Black Hole, John Carpenter's Vampires, The Vampyre Wars, Darkness, House of the Sleeping Beauties, The Eighteenth Angel, and 1983 TV movie "The Phantom of the Opera," in which he played The Phantom opposite Jane Seymour and Michael York.

Despite being type-cast for numerous Nazi-era films, Schell's acting performances in the mid-1970s won him renewed popular acclaim,...

Oscar-winning actor Maximilian Schell has died at the age of 83.

The actor and director passed away overnight at a hospital in Innsbruck, Austria following a "sudden and serious illness", his agent Patricia Baumbauer confirmed to the Austria Press Agency.

Schell - who was a fugitive from Adolf Hitler - won an Oscar for his performance in Judgment at Nuremberg, in which he played a defence attorney. The 1961 film was only his second role in Hollywood.

He also starred as Dr Hans Reinhardt in Disney's The Black Hole in 1979, and scored two further Oscar nominations for his roles in The Man in the Glass Booth and Julia.

As well as acting and directing, Schell was a highly successful concert pianist and conductor, performing with orchestras in Berlin and Vienna.

Schell is survived by his daughter Nastassja Schell, from his 20-year marriage to Natalya Andreychenko.

Watch Maximilian Schell win an Academy Award...

Hollywood has lost a legend today, with Austrian-born actor Maximilian Schell passing away at 83 years old. While the actor's film debut came opposite Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift in "The Young Lions," it would be his performance in his second movie that would bring him worldwide attention. As the only actor brought over from the Playhouse 90 TV production of "Judgment At Nuremberg" to the feature film version directed by Stanley Kramer, Schell's turn in the iconic film as the defense attorney landed him an Oscar win (he would be nominated twice more for "The Man In The Glass Booth" in 1975 and "Julia" in 1977) and from there, he didn't look back. The actor's work, which spanned both feature films and television, found him appearing in a wide range of roles, including everything from "The Odessa File" and "Topkapi," to "John Carpenter's Vampires" and "Deep Impact," to working with newer auteurs...

The most famous Austrian born actor prior to Schwarzenegger, and Oscar's favorite Austrian/Swiss actor ever, died overnight at 83. Maximilian Schell film debut came with the German anti-war film  Kinder, Mütter und ein General (Children, Mother, and the General) but it wasn't long before Hollywood came calling. 

He won a role supposedly through a misunderstanding/accident in the Brando/Clift vehicle Young Lions (1958). Global fame was just a few years away when he co-headlined the mega-star cast of the seminal Oscar Bait giant Judgement at Nuremberg (about Nazi war crime trials) with Hollywood legend Spencer Tracy and they were both were nominated for Best Actor - it's a oft-repeated fallacy of modern Oscar campaigning that people say that splits your vote and prevents you from winning; see also Amadeus. Schell also won the Golden Globe for that film. (As Rhett from Dial M for Movies pointed out on Twitter this morning,...

Maximilian Schell won an Oscar for Judgement At Nuremberg Austrian-born actor Maximilian Schell has died at the age of 83.

Schell, who won an Oscar for his portrayal of a lawyer in Judgement At Nuremberg, passed away after a "sudden and serious illness", according to his agent.

Schell made his Hollywood debut in 1958 film Young Lions and was working right up until this year - his final film Les brigands is currently in post production. He was also Oscar nominated for his role in The Man In The Glass Booth and received a supporting actor nod for his performance alongside Jane Fonda in Julia.

He won a Golden Globe for his supporting role in HBO miniseries Stalin, playing Lenin alongside Robert Duvall. In addition to carving a long and successful career on screen, he was also a producer, director, concert pianist and conductor.

In documentary My Sister Maria, Schell portrayed his relationship with his acting sister,...

Austrian-born actor Maximilian Schell, a fugitive from Adolf Hitler who became a Hollywood favorite and won an Oscar for his role as a defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg, has died. He was 83.

Schell’s agent, Patricia Baumbauer, said Saturday he died overnight at a hospital in Innsbruck following a “sudden and serious illness,” the Austria Press Agency reported.

It was only his second Hollywood role, as defense attorney Hans Rolfe in Stanley Kramer’s classic Judgment at Nuremberg, that earned him wide international acclaim. Schell’s impassioned but unsuccessful defense of four Nazi judges on trial for sentencing innocent...

Austrian actor Maximilian Schell, who won the Academy Award for best actor in 1961 for his portrayal of a defense attorney in the drama Judgment at Nuremberg, has died. He was 83. He death was announced Saturday by his agent, Patricia Baumbauer, who said that Schell died overnight at a hospital in Innsbruck following a "sudden and serious illness," the Associated Press reported, citing the Austria Press Agency. The Vienna-born Schell was later honored with further Oscar nominations - in the best actor category for The Man in the Glass Booth in 1975, and for best supporting actor in Julia in 1977. Born to...

Maximilian Schell, who won a best actor Oscar for his towering performance as the German defense attorney in Judgment at Nuremberg,has died at 83. He also received Oscar nominations for The Man in The Glass Booth (1975), and Julia (1977). Schell's agent, Patricia Baumbauer, said Saturday he died overnight at a hospital in Innsbruck following a "sudden and serious illness," the Austria Press Agency reported. Multi-talented, Schell received two Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Film: In 1970, received that nod for his production of First Love (Erste Liebe), his maiden writing/directing effort; in 1974, for The Pedestrian

read more...

It’s been five years since the legendary Austrian-born Swiss actor-director Maximilian Schell was last in the United States, but the 80-year-old, who landed in Los Angeles Monday, will be celebrating a much bigger milestone Tuesday at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills: the upcoming 50th anniversary of his best actor Oscar win for his performance as an attorney defending alleged Nazi war criminals in Stanley Kramer’s Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

(Schell was also recognized by the Academy with a best actor nod for The Man in the Glass Booth [1975] and a best supporting actor nod for Julia [1977], and directed the foreign-language films First Love [1970] and The Pedestrian [1973] and documentary featureMarlene [1984], which received nods in their respective categories, as well.)

The Academy tribute, which will begin at 7:30pm Pst, will feature a screening of the film, a Q&A with the actor moderated by...

Beverly Hills, CA - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will screen “Judgment at Nuremberg,” in honor of the film’s 50th anniversary, on Tuesday, October 11, at 7:30 p.m. at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Hosted by television and radio personality Larry King, the evening will feature an onstage discussion with Oscar®-winning actor Maximilian Schell; Oscar-winning documentarian Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center; and Mrs. Karen Sharpe Kramer, widow of Stanley Kramer, the film’s producer and director. Video messages from journalist Tom Brokaw, actor Alec Baldwin (who appeared in the “Nuremberg” TV miniseries) and “Judgment at Nuremberg” co-star William Shatner also will be presented.

Today, more than 60 years after the Nuremberg Trials, war tribunals and international criminal courts still dominate human rights discussions. In the Best Picture-nominated “Judgment at Nuremberg” (1961), producer-director Kramer created . only 14 years after the historical...

Tony Award nominee and soap opera actress Tresa Hughes has died, according to a death notice in The New York Times. She was 81.

Hughes played Emma Frame Ordway (Frankie, Molly, Wade, Sterling and Henry's mother) on Another World on and off from June 1975 to June 1976. She was the second Emma (Beverlee McKinsey was the first).

Hughes also played Rose Carelli Fraser on From These Roots from 1960 to 1961 (she left to do "The Advocate" on Broadway) and Nurse Dumfrey on Ryan's Hope in 1977.

Hughes was born in Washington and moved to Baltimore when her father, Joseph Silverman, retired from his supermarket business. She graduated from Forest Park High in 1947 as an art major. Showing talent as a sculptress, she studied at the Maryland Institute during and following high school.

She received her Tony nomination for her performance in Dore Schary's "The Devil's Advocate." Among her many other Broadway credits...

Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.

This Week’s New Instant Releases…

Promised Lands (1974)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Documentary

Director: Susan Sontag

Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.

Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)

Streaming Available: 04/19/2011

Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles

Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...

Two-time Emmy-winning actress Lois Nettleton has died after losing a battle with lung cancer. The 80-year-old was a veteran of the Broadway stage, films and television; she received Emmys for her roles in The American Woman: Profiles In Courage and Insight in 1977 and 1983 respectively. Born in Illinois, Nettleton was a former Miss Chicago and Miss Illinois before she became an actress in the late 1940s. She made her Broadway debut in Darkness At Noon in 1949 and quickly became connected to the works of playwright Tennessee Williams after starring in a string of his plays. She made her film debut in the movie adaptation of Williams' Period Of Adjustment in 1962. Other film roles included Valley Of Mystery, The Man In The Glass Booth and The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas. She was also known for regular roles on sci-fi TV series The Twilight Zone, and she also had recurring roles on beloved shows Murder She Wrote, Full House and The Golden Girls. Nettleton died last week.