Maria Schell, one of the most famous international film actresses of the 1950s, died at her southern Austrian home late Tuesday. She was 79.
Schell "peacefully went to sleep" at her mountain home at Preitenegg in Carinthia province, said the mayor of the local community.
Maria Schell, whose brother Maximilian is also an internationally known actor, had been in poor health for years. After a number of strokes, she was confined to a wheelchair.
At the height of her fame half a century ago, she was the idol of a generation in German-speaking countries. Internationally known were her films Die Letzte Bruecke (The Last Bridge) in 1954 and Die Brueder Karamasow (The Karamasov Brothers) in 1958.
She and her screen partner O.W. Fischer were "the dream couple" of the 1950s. She went on to star in films at the side of Gary Cooper, Marcello Mastroianni, Marlon Brando, Oskar Werner and Romy Schneider.
Stars Wars creator George Lucas has revealed that Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia may turn their talents to television following the release of the last Star Warsfilm next month.
The movie-effects pioneer thrilled fans by announcing his plans last weekend at the first Star Wars convention that Lucas has attended in 18 years, Daily Variety said.
The sixth and final episode in the series of movies that Lucas launched in 1977, Star Wars:
Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, got its world premier at the Cannes film festival next month and hit US screens on May 19. Many fans are anxious about the fate of their heros.
But Lucas revealed at the gathering of hard-core fans in the midwestern US city of Indianapolis that his company Lucasfilm is working on two television shows that would keep his famed series alive.
Both series will be set in the years between the end of Revenge of the Sith and the beginning of the original Star Wars he said.
One of the shows will be a half-hour 3-D animated program that expands on the Lucas' existing cartoon Clone Wars miniseries.
That show would probably be made in a new computer generated animation facility that LucasFilm is building in Singapore, he said.
The other is a live-action series that would focus on some supporting characters who have been introduced in the movie series.
"We're probably not going to start that for about a year," Lucas, who also created the Indiana Jones movie and television series, told fans.
"Like on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, we want to write all the stories for the entire first season all at once," he said adding that he would likely launch the small-screen series and then "step away."
But Lucas stressed that the plans are not official yet and that neither project is close to production. In addition, he has yet to find a US TV network to run the series.
Woody Allen has cast starlet Scarlett Johansson as the lead in his new movie, which goes into production in Britain in June.
The film, details of which -- including its title and plot -- are being kept under wraps, marks the second time the pair has worked together following Johansson's turn in last year's Match Point, which will have its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month.
Match Point was also filmed in London and marked Allen's first departure from his usual movie backdrop of Manhattan.
Johansson, 20, shot to international fame as the star of Sofia Coppola's Oscar-winning 2003 film Lost in Translation, for which the actress won a Golden Globe nomination.
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