Maria Schneider (actress) miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth" (1979), in which Schneider said she did not feel right for the part of Mary, mother of Jesus, though later regretted missing out on this opportunity and instead eventually appeared in Zeffirelli's 1996 film "Jane Eyre" in a brief appearance as Bertha Mason. The 1970s were turbulent years for Schneider, marked by drug addiction, overdoses, and a suicide attempt. Schneider said that she disliked the instant fame accorded to her from "Last Tango in Paris". She suffered abuse and began taking drugs. By the 1980s, however, her life had improved: Schneider died of breast cancer on
Maria Riva Maria Riva Maria Elisabeth Riva (née Sieber; born 13 December 1924) is a German-born American actress, writer and activist. She worked on television at CBS in the 1950s. She is the daughter of actress Marlene Dietrich, about whom she published a memoir in 1992. Maria Elisabeth Sieber was born in Berlin, the only child of actress Marlene Dietrich and assistant film director Rudolf Sieber (and later Paramount Pictures director of dubbing, Paris, France). In 1930, at age six, she moved with her mother to Los Angeles, California. In 1934, aged nine, she had a small role in Josef von Sternberg's