Wolfgang Petersen dies at 81

The production company confirmed on Tuesday that German director Wolfgang Petersen has died.

He was 81 years old.

Petersen is said to have died peacefully last Friday at his home in Brentwood, California, after battling pancreatic cancer, and is in the arms of his 50-year-old wife, Maria Antoinette.

Debuting in 1981 with the WWII movie Das Boot, the director achieved huge success in Hollywood with blockbuster films such as Air Force One, In the Line of Fire and Troy.

His 1984 fantasy film The NeverEnding Story was the most expensive film produced outside of the United States, but it was also a box office success and spawned a string of movies.

Born on March 14, 1941 in Emden, Germany, Petersen began directing plays at the Ernst Deutsch Theater in Hamburg in the 1960s.

He eventually went to the Berlin Film and Television Academy and after graduating made films for German television.

His feature film debut is a psychological thriller based on Horst Bosetzky’s novel Einer von uns, based in 1974.

Celebrity: The director directs acting legend Clint Eastwood on the set of In the Line of Fire in 1993.

Brilliant career: Petersen poses with The Black Eyed Peas star Fergie at the 2006 Los Angeles premiere of the disaster movie remake of Poseidon

He then released Die Konsequenz in 1977, followed by his groundbreaking film Das Boot in 1982.

Das Boot, the most expensive film in the history of German cinema at 149 minutes (the original film ran 210 minutes), talked about the intense claustrophobia of life aboard a German submarine doomed to death during the Battle of the Atlantic, starring Jürgen Prochnow as the commander. submarine.

Das Boot was declared an anti-war masterpiece and was nominated for six Oscars, including directing Petersen and its 1973 adaptation of Lothar-Günther Buchheim’s bestselling novel.

Legendary Director: Petersen instructs Harrison Ford while filming Air Force One in 1997

Revolutionary movie: Wolfgang with a clip from the director’s movie Das Boot

Das Boot started Petersen as a director in Hollywood and became a leading creator of action adventures due to the war (Troy, played by Brad Pitt in 2004), the pandemic (the virus-inspired Ebola epidemic in 1995) and other disasters. Poseidon 2006). , on the overturning of an ocean liner).

For Petersen, who grew up on Germany’s north coast, the sea has long held its charm. He would return to this in the 2000 disaster movie The Perfect Storm, a true story about a fishing boat lost at sea.

The film stars George Clooney, Mark Wahlberg and John C. Reilly, among others, and Petersen admitted he was “very proud” of the project.

Das Boot started Petersen as a director in Hollywood, where he is one of the leading creators of action adventures of major catastrophes including war (Troy, played by Brad Pitt in 2004), pandemic (the Ebola-inspired epidemic of 1995) and other disasters. became one. 2006 Poseidon on the overturning of an ocean liner); Petersen spotted with Kurt Russell and Josh Lucas

“I’m so proud of The Perfect Storm. “Going through the studio system was a very difficult concept because it was very expensive,” he said. “It was the biggest storm ever. And the story – the six men on Andrea Gail’s boat, as we all know, eventually die.

“We’ve had a lot of calls from people saying ‘Wolfgang, don’t be silly’. I can’t run. It’s a summer movie, a $150 million movie. And do they all die in the end? Is there at least someone who survives in the end like Mark Wahlberg?” But we did,” he said.

However, he expressed regret for the 2006 remake of Poseidon, which suffered at the box office.

Petersen pictured with Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt in a Troy photo interview at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival

According to The Hollywood Journalist, “I shouldn’t have made the movie, but I had a role like this back then, I did five movies, and each movie was better than the last,” he admitted. “The studios said: ‘Wolfgang can do anything. Give him the money and he’ll get better.’ But it doesn’t work that way. You fail at some point.

Petersen’s latest feature film is the 1976 German film Four vs. Bank (Vier gegen die Bank) since 2016.

Petersen has been married to German script supervisor and assistant director Maria-Antoinette Borgel since 1978. He was also previously married to German actress Ursula Sieg.

Borgel and his sons, writer and director Daniel Petersen, survived.