American Grand Prix motor racing driver who was the first American driver to start a Formula One Grand Prix. He had a reputation as a playboy and womanizer.
Schell was the son of expatriate American and sometime auto racer Laury Schell; his mother was the wealthy American heiress Lucy O’Reilly Schell.
Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, Schell’s parents were involved in a road accident in which Laury was killed and O’Reilly severely injured.
When France was occupied by Germany, Schell and his mother returned to America, where Schell took on the running of two Maseratis at the 1940 Indianapolis 500. Having already volunteered in the Finnish Air Force during their Winter War with Russia in 1939, Harry then earned a commission in the United States Tank Corps when America entered the Second World War.
Schell went on to race in Europe, driving Coopers in Formula 3, Formula 2 and even the Formula One World Drivers’ Championship upon its inception in 1950. His first appearance was in a Cooper powered by a J.A.P. V-twin engine at Monte Carlo; it ended in an accident at the harbor chicane that involved the majority of the field.
Though Schell never won a championship Grand Prix, he twice stood on the podium with a best place of second in the 1958 Dutch Grand Prix, won the Caen Grand Prix of 1956, and balanced those with periodic sports car outings.
By the start of 1960, and nearing 40, Schell’s prospects appeared dim, and he campaigned a private Cooper run under his family’s Ecurie Bleue banner. That changed, however, when he was contracted by the British Racing Partnership team before the start of the European Grand Prix season for a full program of events, to be teamed with Tony Brooks and the up-and-coming Chris Bristow in year-old Coopers. Schell died in practice for the non-championship International Trophy event at Silverstone on 13 May 1960, when he crashed his Cooper at Abbey Curve. Schell was driving at approximately 100 mph when his car slid into the mud on the side of the track and lost a wheel. The Cooper somersaulted and penetrated a safety barrier, causing a brick wall to collapse. He was 38.
Prior to his death, Schell had been extremely vocal in the promotion of the roll-bar on European racing cars, a safety feature required in America. By the 1500cc formula of 1961, it had become standard in Formula One.
Link to Wikipedia biography