Status: 08/16/2022 9:10 p.m
Wolfgang Petersen, star director of films such as “Das Boot”, “Outbreak”, “Air Force One” and “Der Sturm” is dead. He died on Friday at the age of 81, as his assistant confirmed.
His international breakthrough came with “Das Boot”: According to his assistant, director Wolfgang Petersen died of cancer at the age of 81. Petersen was born in Emden and grew up in Hamburg. In the 1960s, he first trained as an actor himself, but also gained experience as an assistant director and theater director.
For his cinema debut “One of Us Two” Petersen immediately won the Federal Film Prize in 1974 as the best young director. In 1980 he filmed Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s hit novel “Das Boot” about the fate of a U-boat crew in World War II. The film delighted the audience, and to this day the film is considered one of the most successful German productions in the USA. At that time it received six Oscar nominations and was the most expensive German production to date.
He became a successful blockbuster director
The cinema version of Michael Ende’s cult book “The Neverending Story” followed before Petersen went to Hollywood in the mid-1980s. After an initial dry spell, one of the really big stars wanted him as a director: Clint Eastwood. The film “In the Line of Fire” was a triumph: action combined with depth, the critics loved it, it was a box office success.
Petersen established himself as one the Blockbuster directors in Hollywood – often they were films with a patriotic message. In “Air Force One”, for example, the American president single-handedly saves his plane from terrorists.
According to his assistant, Petersen had pancreatic cancer. He died peacefully surrounded by his family at his home in Brentwood, a part of Los Angeles. His wife Maria was at his side.