Romy Schneider was an Austrian-born film actress who held German and French citizenship. She
started her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early 1950s when she was 15.
From 1955 to 1957 she played the central character of Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Austrian
Sissi trilogy. In 1958 she met Alain Delon and they became engaged; Schneider moved to
France where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable
film directors of that era. Her engagement to Delon ended in 1963 and Schneider subsequently
married twice. The son from her first marriage died in an accident in 1981 when he was 14.
In May 1982, aged 43, Schneider was found dead in her Paris apartment.
Early life Schneider was born Rosemarie Magdalena Albach
in Nazi-era Vienna, six months after the Anschluss, into a family of actors that included her
paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty, her Austrian father Wolf Albach-Retty and her
German mother Magda Schneider. After her parents' divorce in 1945, Magda took charge of Romy
and her brother Wolfi, eventually supervising the young girl's career, often appearing alongside
her daughter. Her career was also overseen by her stepfather, Hans Herbert Blatzheim,
a noted restaurateur who Schneider indicated had an unhealthy interest in her.
Early career Romy Schneider's first film, made when she
was 15, was Wenn der weiße Flieder wieder blüht in 1953, credited as Romy Schneider-Albach.
In 1954, Schneider for the first time portrayed a royal, playing a young Queen Victoria in
the Austrian film Mädchenjahre einer Königin. Schneider's breakthrough came with her portrayal
of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, in the romantic biopic Sissi and its two sequels, Sissi – The
Young Empress and Sissi – Fateful Years of an Empress, all with Karlheinz Böhm, who
became a close friend. Less stereotypical films during this busy period include Robinson
soll nicht sterben, working with a young Horst Buchholz, and Monpti, directed by Helmut Käutner,
again with Buchholz. Schneider soon starred in Christine, a remake
of Max Ophüls's 1933 film Liebelei. It was during the filming of Christine that Schneider
fell in love with French actor Alain Delon, who co-starred in the movie. She left Germany
to join him in Paris and they announced their engagement in 1959.
Schneider decided to live and to work in France, slowly gaining the interest of film directors
such as Orson Welles for The Trial, based upon Franz Kafka's The Trial and was introduced
by Delon to Luchino Visconti. Under Visconti's direction, she gave performances
in the Théâtre Moderne as Annabella in John Ford's stage play 'Tis Pity She's a Whore
and in the film Boccaccio '70. In 1962 Schneider played Anna in Sacha Pitoëff's production
of Chekhov's play The Seagull, also at the Théâtre Moderne. A brief stint in Hollywood
included an appearance in Good Neighbor Sam a comedy with Jack Lemmon, while What's New
Pussycat?, although American financed, was shot in and around Paris. Schneider co-starred
with Peter O'Toole, Peter Sellers and Woody Allen; the film was made from his first screenplay.
Schneider and Delon decided to split up in 1963 although they remained close lifelong
friends. They continued to work together in such films as La Piscine, which revitalized
her career, and The Assassination of Trotsky. Later career
Schneider continued to work in France during the 1970s, most notably with director Claude
Sautet on five films. Their first collaboration, The Things of Life with Michel Piccoli, was
a great success and made Schneider an icon in France. The three colleagues teamed up
again for the noir thriller Max et les Ferrailleurs, and she appeared with Yves Montand in Sautet's
César et Rosalie. Schneider portrayed Elisabeth of Austria again in Ludwig, Visconti's film
about the life of King Ludwig II of Bavaria. This time she played the Empress as a much
more complex, mature, even bitter woman. "Sissi sticks to me just like oatmeal", Schneider
once said. Other successes from this period included
Le Train, where she played a German-Jewish refugee in World War 2, Claude Chabrol's thriller
Innocents with Dirty Hands with Rod Steiger, and Le vieux fusil. The gritty That Most Important
Thing: Love garnered her first César Award, a feat she repeated five years later, in her
last collaboration with Sautet, for A Simple Story.
On 30 October 1974, Schneider created one of the most memorable moments on German television.
She was the second guest on Dietmar Schönherr's talk show Je später der Abend when she, after
a rather terse interview, remarked passionately to the last guest, bank robber and author
Burkhard Driest: "Sie gefallen mir. Sie gefallen mir sehr."
She also acted in Le Trio infernal with Michel Piccoli, and in Garde à vue with Michel Serrault
and Lino Ventura. An unpleasant incident occurred during this period with leading German film
director Rainer Werner Fassbinder who wanted her to play the lead in his film The Marriage
of Maria Braun. Negotiations broke down when he called Schneider a "dumb cow", to which
Schneider responded by declaring she would never work with such a "beast". Fassbinder
cast Hanna Schygulla instead, reviving his professional association with an actress to
whom he had also been offensive. Schneider starred in Bertrand Tavernier's
Death Watch playing a dying woman whose last days are watched on national television via
a camera implanted in the brain of a journalist. It is based on David G. Compton's novel, Her
last film was La Passante du Sans-Souci. Personal life
Following the end of her relationship with Delon, Schneider married German director and
actor Harry Meyen in July 1966. The couple had a son, David Christopher, but later divorced.
In 1975, Schneider married Daniel Biasini, her private secretary; they separated in 1981.
Their daughter, Sarah Magdalena, is now an actress.
David, Schneider's son, died at the age of 14 after attempting to climb the spiked fence
at his stepfather's parents' home, but punctured his femoral artery in the process. Schneider
began drinking alcohol excessively after the death of David.
However, Claude Pétin—Schneider's friend—said that Schneider no longer drank at the time
of her death. Pétin also said that Schneider's cardiac arrest was due to a weakened heart
caused by a kidney operation she had months before.
At the time of her death, Schneider was in a relationship with film producer Laurent
Pétin. Death
Schneider was found dead in her Paris apartment on May 29, 1982. It was suggested that she
had committed suicide by taking a lethal cocktail of alcohol and sleeping pills. After another
post-mortem examination was carried out, authorities declared that she had died from cardiac arrest.
Her tombstone at Boissy-sans-Avoir in the Canton of Montfort-l'Amaury bears the name
Rosemarie Albach. Shortly afterwards, Delon arranged for David to be buried in the same
grave. Enduring popularity
The French journalist Eugène Moineau initiated in 1984 the Prix Romy Schneider; this prize—the
most prestigious award for promising actresses in the French film industry—is awarded by
a jury each year in Paris in conjunction with the Prix Patrick Dewaere. In 1990, the Austrian
newspaper Kurier created the Romy TV Award in honour of Schneider. In 2003, she was voted
78th on the list of the greatest Germans in the German TV programme Unsere Besten—the
second highest ranked actress on that list. Until 2002, the Austrian Federal Railways
InterCity service IC 535 from Wien Südbahnhof to Graz was named "Romy Schneider".
A movie about Schneider's life, titled Eine Frau wie Romy/Une femme comme Romy was planned
by Warner Bros. for 2009; Schneider's role was going to be played by Yvonne Catterfeld.
The project was cancelled in July 2009. A musical about Schneider, Romy – Die Welt
aus Gold was premiered in 2009 at the Theater Heilbronn. In November 2009 the ARD broadcast
the feature film Romy (de) with Jessica Schwarz in the title role.
Filmography ^ L'Enfer remained unfinished in 1964; it
was released as L' Enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot in 2009 by Serge Bromberg.
Awards Bambi: 1957 nominated for Sissi
Bravo Otto 1957: Bronze
1958: Gold 1959: Silver
1971: Silver 1972: Bronze
1977: Bronze
Étoile de Cristal (fr): 1963 as Best Foreign Actress for The Trial
Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama: 1963 nominated for The Cardinal
César Award for Best Actress 1975: won for L'important c'est d'aimer
1976: nominated for Une femme à sa fenêtre 1978: won for Une histoire simple
1979: nominated for Clair de femme 1982: nominated for La Passante du Sans-Souci
Deutscher Filmpreis Best Actress: 1977 for Group Portrait with Lady
Premio David di Donatello: 1979 Lifetime Achievement 2008: Honorary César
Awards named after Romy Schneider Prix Romy Schneider, French film award established
in 1984 Romy, Austrian award established in 1990
References
Literature Hans-Jürgen Tast: Romy Schneider – Ein
Leben auf Titelseiten Schellerten 2008, ISBN 978-3-88842-036-8.
Michael Töteberg: Romy Schneider, Rowohlt Verlag 2009, ISBN 978-3-499-50669-7
External links Media related to Romy Schneider at Wikimedia
Commons
Romy Schneider at the Internet Movie Database