Wolfgang Petersen is dead. The German star director, screenwriter and producer, who was responsible for films such as “Das Boot”, “Outbreak” and “Troja”, died of pancreatic cancer in California on August 12, 2022 at the age of 81. His death was confirmed to dpa by his assistant on August 16, 2022.
Wolfgang Petersen was born in Emden on March 14, 1941, the son of a naval officer. He made his first attempts at cinematography when he was still at school, using an 8 mm camera. Later he directed children’s performances at Hamburg’s Junges Theater. Petersen’s interest in film was extensive — he tried his hand at acting, attended drama school, worked as an assistant director, and later studied drama.
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He worked for the German Film and Television Academy, made short films and staged plays. He later switched to television, where he produced several “Tatort” episodes, among other things. The episode “Reifezeugnis” with Nastassja Kinski has long been legendary – and made both him and Kinski known to a larger audience.
From Germany to Hollywood
Petersen made his film debut as a director in 1974 with the film “One of us two”, in which, among others, actor Jürgen Prochnow and film composer and musician Klaus Doldinger took part. His biggest coup was to be the film adaptation of the novel “Das Boot” in the early 1980s, which became a mega success not only in the United States. With “The Neverending Story” he and his friend, the producer Bernd Eichinger, lifted the most expensive film ever produced in Germany to date in 1984.
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A little later he moved to the USA, where he made films such as “Air Force One” (with Harrison Ford), “The Tempest” (with George Clooney) and “Troy” (with Brad Bitt). Petersen held both German and US citizenship. His last film was released in 2016: the crime comedy Four Against the Band, a quasi-remake of his 1974 TV movie.
Petersen lived with his wife Maria Borgel-Petersen, to whom he had been married since 1978, most recently in Brentwood, Los Angeles.