German film director Wolfgang Petersen reportedly died on Friday, August 12, 2022, at his Brentwood residence from pancreatic cancer, in the arms of his wife of 50 years, Maria Antoinette. He was 81.
Born on March 14, 1941, in Emden, Germany, Petersen attended the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg from 1953 to 1960.
After studying theater in Berlin and Hamburg, Petersen attended the Film and Television Academy in Berlin between 1966 and 1970.
Wolfgang 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.
He was nominated for two Academy Awards for the World War II submarine warfare film Das Boot (1981). His other films include The NeverEnding Story, Enemy Mine, In the Line of Fire, Outbreak, Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, Troy, and Poseidon.
Wolfgang Petersen was married to German actress Ursula Sieg until their divorce in 1978.
He is survived by his second wife Maria-Antoinette Borgel, a German script supervisor and assistant director whom he married in 1978, and a son by Sieg, Daniel Petersen, writer-director.