Director Wolfgang Petersen Dies At 81; Hollywood Star Rose After ‘Das Boot’ To Include Blockbusters ‘The Perfect Storm,’ ‘Air Force One’ & ‘In The Line Of Fire’

Wolfgang Petersen, the German director whose films include The Perfect Storm, Air Force One and Das Boot, has died. He was 81. Petersen died peacefully Friday at his Brentwood residence from pancreatic cancer, in the arms of his wife of 50 years, Maria Antoinette.

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Petersen began his career in Germany but answered the call of Hollywood after his 1981 breakout film, the claustrophobic submarine WWII epic Das Boot (The Boat), was nominated for six Academy Awards. Two of those went to Petersen for adapted screenplay and directing, and he also was nominated for a BAFTA Award and DGA Award. The film starred Jürgen Prochnow as the U-boat captain, who became a good example of Petersen’s action characters.

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He quickly became one of the most in-demand directors of technically complex star-driven studio action films — a run that included The Perfect Storm (2000), Air Force One (1997), Outbreak (1995), In the Line of Fire (1993), Shattered (1991) — which he also wrote — Troy (2004) and Poseidon (2006). 

Das Boot was released in multiple versions, starting with the 149-minute original theatrical pic. The BBC aired a three-part, 300-minute miniseries in the mid-1980s, and a 1997 director’s cut clocked in at 208 minutes.

Petersen also helmed the space-set 1985 sci-fi pic Enemy Mine and directed and co-wrote 1984’s fantasy film The NeverEnding Story. He also produced or exec produced several pics he helmed, including Perfect Storm, Outbreak and In the Line of Fire, along with such films as Instinct and Bicentennial Man (both 1999), and Red Corner (1997).

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He was well-liked amongst his peers and admired by the talent he worked with including Clint Eastwood, Harrison Ford, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Rene Russo, Glenn Close, Mark Wahlberg, Dustin Hoffman, Morgan Freeman and Diane Lane.

“Being directed by Wolfgang on Air Force One remains a special memory,” Glenn Close said in a statement Tuesday. “Even though the script was thrilling and incredibly intense, I remember a lot of laughs, especially in the scenes around the huge table in the War Room. Wolfgang set a remotely controlled camera that could rotate in place, seamlessly covering all of us, one after another. You knew the camera would pause on you by his hilarious direction while setting up the shot. He would point to us in turn and say, “Acting…acting…NO acting…NO acting…ACTING… aaaacting!” He didn’t waste anyone’s time. My memory is of a man full of joie de vivre who was doing what he most loved to do.“

Born on March 14, 1941, in Emden, Germany, Petersen began his directing career with short films and TV movies in the 1960s and ’70s. His first theatrical pic was One or the Other (1974), and he followed that with The Consequence in 1977, for which he also penned the adapted screenplay.

In addition to his wife, Petersen is survived by his son, Daniel, and two grandchildren. Funeral services will be private.

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.