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Home , Jules Dassin, Maria Schell, Vanessa Redgrave, Wallace Shawn

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CAST BIOS

VANESSA REDGRAVE (Penelope Keeling) – In March 2007, made her latest appearance on Broadway, in adaptation of ’s 2005 memoir “The Year of Magical Thinking,” directed by . Redgrave, a passionate reader of Didion’s, was the only actress considered for the role. Prior to that, she last appeared on the New York stage in Eugene O'Neill's “Long Day’s Journey Into Night” in 2003, for which she won a Tony Award for Best Actress. She also played Vita with, and in Dame ' “Vita and Virginia” in 1995/96, Cleopatra in her own production of “” at the Public Theater in 1996/97 and Hecuba in the RSC's production of Euripides’ play, directed by Tony Harrison, in 2005. Additionally, Redgrave played Lady in ' “Orpheus Descending” in 1989; when she also produced a benefit performance “The Wall Breaks!” celebrating the overthrow of the Eastern European communist party regimes.

Her first theatre performance in New York was in 's production of Ibsen's “The Lady from the Sea” at Ted Mann's Circle in the Square in 1976. Redgrave has worked directly with , Tennessee Williams, , and .

Redgrave’s most recent film role is in the Academy Award nominated “Atonement,” in which she plays Briony Tallis in later life. She was awarded a Best British Supporting Actress Award by the Film Critics Circle. Other roles include “Venus” and “Evening,” starring . In 1978, she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Golden Globe for her role in “Julia.” Other films include “Murder on the Orient Express,” “Yanks,” “Howard’s End” and “Little ,” to name just a few.

In the television realm, Redgrave has also appeared in numerous memorable projects. Her most recent role for television was in "The Fever" to air on HBO, with a script by Wallace Shawn and featuring . She also guest starred on the FX series “Nip/Tuck,” which stars her daughter, . She has won two , including Best Actress in a Television Movie or Miniseries for the Arthur Miller written “Playing for Time” in 1980 and Best Supporting Actress in a Mini-series or Movie in 2000 for the much-acclaimed “If These Walls Could Talk 2.”

Redgrave has been a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nations Children’s Fund, since 1995. "Dissent Projects," the film company she co-produces with Carlo Nero, has just made a documentary film, “Wake Up World,” in tribute to UNICEF.

Redgrave's acting, of course, has deep . Her parents were both actors; her brother Corin, and sister Lynn as well as her other daughter Natasha.

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HALLMARK CHANNEL / ‘THE SHELL SEEKERS’ – Cast Bios – Page 2

MAXIMILIAN SCHELL (Lawrence Sterne) – Born in , and raised in , is the son of well-known actress Margarethe Noe von Nordberg and renowned writer/poet Hermann Ferdinand Schell. His sister, , was already an international movie star when Schell made his American screen debut in Edward Demetryk's "The Young Lions" (1958), co-starring with Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift.

This was followed by his starring role in Stanley Kramer's "Judgment at Nuremberg" (1961), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. After several more starring roles in films such as Daniel Mann's "Five Finger Exercise" (1962), Vittoria De Sica's "The Condemned of Altona" (1963), Jules Dassin's "Topkapi" (1964), J. Lee Thomson's Return From The Ashes" (1965), 's "The Deadly Affair" (1967) and 's "Counterpoint" (1968), Schell produced and acted in a much acclaimed adaptation of Franz Kafka's "The Castle" (1968). He then wrote, produced and directed a film based on Turgenev's "First Love" (1970); and did the same with "The Pedestrian" in 1974, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Language Film category. Other directorial film work includes Durrenmatt's "The Judge and His Hangman (End of the Game)" and a film adaptation of Horvath's "Tales from the Vienna Woods" (which he had directed on stage at the National Theatre in London).

Other acclaimed film acting roles which followed include: 's "The Odessa File" (1974), Arthur Hiller's "The Man In the Glass Booth" (1975); for which he received another Oscar nomination and was nominated for a Golden Globe, 's "Julia" (1977 -- opposite Vanessa Redgrave); for which he won The New York Film Critics' Award and was again nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a Golden Globe, Jeremy Paul Kagan's "The Chosen" (1981), Andrew Bergman's "The Freshman" (1990), Joseph Sargeant's "Miss Rosewhite" (1992), Mikael Salomon's "A Far Off Place" and Fons Rademakers' "The Rose Garden" (1993) and James Gray's "Little Odessa" (1994).

Schell made his Broadway debut in 1958 in Ira Levin's "Interlock" and starred in John Osborn's groundbreaking "A Patriot for Me" in London and on Broadway in 1965. He has twice played "" on stage -- first under the direction of the legendary Gustaf Grundgens and later under his own direction in Munich. For five consecutive years (1978 – 1982) Schell portrayed "Everyman" at the Salzburg Festival.

In 1984, Schell made the widely hailed Academy Award nominated documentary "Marlene,” about screen legend Marlene Dietrich, which also won the New York Film Critics Award. He published his first novel, The Rebel , in 1990.

Schell has also had an impressive career in television, including a Golden Globe Award-winning performance as Lenin in the television production of "Stalin,” directed by Ivan Passer.

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HALLMARK CHANNEL / ‘THE SHELL SEEKERS’ – Cast Bios – Page 3

In 2000, Schell was awarded "The Actor of the Millennium" at the Baltic Pearl Film Festival, in Latvia. That same year he starred in the Broadway production of "Judgment at Nuremburg” (playing the role originally created on film by ) and he directed -- to great acclaim -- Wagner's "Lohengrin" for the Los Angeles Opera.

In 2002, Schell directed a documentary film about his sister entitle “My Sister Maria,” which earned praise throughout Europe. In 2006, he was back on the London stage in the Arthur Miller play “Resurrection Blues,” directed by .

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