Schell was born in Vienna, Austria, the daughter of Margarethe (née Noe von Nordberg), an actress who ran an acting school, and Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss poet, novelist, playwright, and owner of a pharmacy. Her parents were Roman Catholics. 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 Dr. Holl (1951), So Little Time (1952), The Heart of the Matter (1953), Gervaise (1956), Le notti bianche (1957), Rose Bernd (1957), The Brothers Karamazov (1958) playing the role of Grushenka, The Hanging Tree (1959), Cimarron (1960), and Superman (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, Marcello Mastroianni, Suzy Delair, Gary Cooper and Marlon Brando. She had three guest appearances in the television series Der Kommissar and two in Derrick, in the episodes “Yellow He” (1977) and “Klavierkonzert” (1978). Her final public appearance was at the premiere of her brother Maximilian’s documentary film, My Sister Maria (2002). She starred in the 1976 Broadway play Poor Murderer. 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 was 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). Maria Schell lived reclusively in ill health in Carinthia in the Austrian Alps until her death from pneumonia in Preitenegg on 26 April 2005, aged 79. Upon her death, her brother 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.”