Actress’ Biography:

Maria Schneider (Paris, France, March 27, 1952 - Paris, France, February 3, 2011)


Maria Schneider was born in Paris as Marie Christine Gélin, the product of an extramarital affair between actor Daniel Gelin and Marie Christine Schneider. She met her father only a few times in her life and at the beginning of her acting career she took her mother’s last name. In her teenage years, she fell in love with film and used every opportunity to go to the movies. At fifteen, she had a fight with her mother and moved to Paris. She worked as an extra on film sets and met Brigitte Bardot who knew her father and offered Maria a room in her house. So through Bardot, Maria met important people from the film industry. Among them Warren Beatty, who presented her to the William Morris agency through which she got her first role in Madly (1970) by the director Roger Kahane. Afterwards she appeared in four more films in smaller roles. She had her first and most famous leading role in Last Tango in Paris (L' ultimo tango a Parigi, 1972) by Bernardo Bertolucci, a controversial film that brought her worldwide fame but problems in private life. She later stated that because she was only nineteen at the age of filming the Tango, her acting partner Marlon Brando manipulated her and she never talked to the director after his film Novecento (1976). Eventually, she became a close friend to Brando but often criticized the film because after it she was always regarded as a sex symbol, rather than a serious actress. She even refused a role in Caligola (1979) with the explanation that she was an actress and not a prostitute. The film she was always the most proud of was Profession: Reporter (Professione: reporter, 1975) by Michelangelo Antonioni in which she starred opposite Jack Nicholson. Afterwards, she acted in René Clément’s La baby sitter (1975), but during the filming, she checked in to a metal hospital causing a scandal. Eventually the film was finished and she stated that she checked herself in because of loyalty to her female lover (she was one of the few actresses who in 1974 openly declared herself as bisexual) who was in the same institution. She was hired for the role of Conchita in Luis Buñuel’s last film That Obscure Object of Desire (Cet obscur objet du dési, 1977), but was fired just a few days into shooting. In the late 1970s, she acted in some bad low-budget films such as La dérobade (1979) and Mama Dracula (1980). This period of her life was characterized more by drug problems, overdoses and suicide attempts than film roles. Nevertheless, in the 1980s she defeated her drug problem with the help of an unknown person whose identity she never revealed. Interesting for domestic audiences, she appeared in the French-Yugoslav co-production directed by Predrag Golubović Sezona mira u Parizu (1981). She had one of her better roles in the 1980s in the films Merry-Go-Round (1981) by Jacques Rivette in which she co-starred with Joeo Dallesandro. After that she again acted in some unimportant films and sometimes TV series and films. Even though she continued to act (Les nuits fauves, 1992, Jane Eyre, 1996, Something to Believe In, 1998, La repentie, 2002) those were mostly smaller parts. She ran the association The Wheel Turns, which helped older unemployed actresses. Her last film role was in the film Cliente (2008).




Filmography:

Cliente (2008)

La clef (2007)

La vie d'artiste (2007)

Quale amore (2006)

Perds pas la boule! (short film) (2006)

Au large de Bad Ragaz (2004)

La repentie (2002)

Les acteurs (2000)

Il cuore e la spada (TV film)(1998)

Angelo nero (TV film) (1998)

Something to Believe In (1998)

Jane Eyre (1996)

Contrôle d'identité (TV film) (1993)

Les nuits fauves (1992)

Au pays des Juliets (1992)

Écrans de sable (1991)

La condanna (1991)

Bunker Palace Hôtel (1989)

Silvia è sola (TV film) (1988)

Résidence surveillée (1987)

A Song for Europe (TV film) (1985)

Yoroppa tokkyu (1984)

Balles perdues (1983)

Cercasi Gesù (1982)

Merry-Go-Round (1981)

Sezona mira u Parizu (1981)

La chanson du mal aimé (1981)

Mama Dracula (1980)

Haine (1980)

Weiße Reise (1980)

La dérobade (1979)

Een vrouw als Eva (1979)

Io sono mia (1978)

Violanta (1978)

Voyage au jardin des morts (1978)

La baby sitter (1975)

Professione: reporter (1975)

Cari genitori (1973)

Reigen (1973)

Last Tango in Paris (1972)

What a Flash! (1972)

Hellé (1972)

La vieille fille (1972)

Les jambes en l'air (1971)

Madly (1970)

Les femmes (unaccredited) (1969)

L'arbre de Noël (unaccredited) (1969)