She is regarded as one of the greatest screen actresses of all time and became a cult figure due to her role as Empress Elisabeth of Austria in the Sissi trilogy in the mids. She began her career in the German Heimatfilm genre in the early s when she was Schneider moved to France, where she made successful and critically acclaimed films with some of the most notable film directors of that era.
Coco Chanel called Romy "the ultimate incarnation of the ideal woman". Me, I want to talk of Verdi, Mahler She was born to a theatrical couple; [ 8 ] her father Wolf Albach-Retty was a leading actor of Vienna's Volkstheater , and her mother Magda Schneider starred in scores of lavish musical films in Germany.
Her paternal grandmother Rosa Albach-Retty had been one of the most popular actresses of the Austrian theater. Rosemarie, known to family as Romy from her earliest years, was educated at private schools in Berchtesgaden and Salzburg. Interested in painting, she planned to continue her education at art school, but she was also interested in school plays, not only acting in them but directing as well. In her first year, Schneider was cared for by a governess.
Her parents were very rarely present due to their acting engagements. In , they separated and divorced in During her schooldays, she discovered her passion for acting which is why she was often on stage at theatrical performances at the residential school. In her diary entry of 10 June , she wrote: "If it were up to me, I would immediately become an actress.
Every time I see a nice movie, my first thoughts are about the idea: I definitely have to become an actress. I have to! After the summer holidays, she moved to Cologne to join her mother who lived there with the restaurateur and entrepreneur Hans Herbert Blatzheim [ de ]. After her parents' divorce in , Magda took charge of Schneider and her brother Wolf-Dieter, eventually supervising her career, often appearing alongside her daughter.
