- She appeared in only one film with her younger brother Maximilian Schell: The Odessa File (1974). They had no scenes together.
- After the Nazis entered Austria in 1938, her family left Vienna and moved to Zurich, Switzerland.
- Her brother Maximilian Schell made a movie about her in 2002 called Meine Schwester Maria (2002) (aka "My Sister Maria").
- Became one of the first movie idols to the postwar generation in the German-speaking countries with her distinctive "smile under tears".
- Her breakthrough performance was in Helmut Käutner's The Last Bridge (1954) (aka "Die letzte Brücke"), a touching performance as a tragic heroine, which won her the Best Actress Award at Cannes.
- Pictured on an Austrian 68c commemorative postage stamp issued 24 April 2015, two days before the tenth anniversary of her death.
- She was the daughter of Hermann Ferdinand Schell, a Swiss writer, and Margarete Schell Noé, an Austrian actress. Her three siblings, Carl Schell, Maximilian Schell, and Immy Schell, also joined the acting profession.
- Considered 99 Women (1969) (aka "Island of Despair") to be her worst picture.
- Both she and her younger brother Maximilian Schell worked with Hardy Krüger: Maria in As Long as You're Near Me (1953) and Maximilian in A Bridge Too Far (1977).
- Mother of Oliver Hächler (known as Oliver Schell, with Horst Hächler) and actress Marie Theres Relin (with Veit Relin).
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