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Oscar-winning director Wolfgang Petersen, best known for films like “Big Boots,” “Air Force One,” and “The Perfect Storm,” has died at 81.
Peterson died Friday in Los Angeles, a representative said. He was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
German-born Petersen was nominated for Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director for the 1981 World War II submarine drama “Das Boot.” He made his English debut in 1984 with the children’s film The Neverending Story.
He went on to direct many Hollywood blockbusters, including Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich’s “The Wire,” George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg’s “Perfect Storm,” Dustin Hoffman and Morgan Freeman’s “Breakout,” Brad Pitt’s “Troy,” and Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman’s “Air Force One.”
Peterson was born on March 14, 1941 in Emden, Germany. He became obsessed with American cinema in the 1950s.
“All these American films came to Germany after the war, and I was fascinated by American films,” he told German media DW in 2016.
“In these films, especially in Westerns, there’s a lot of clarity about what’s good and what’s bad and what you have to fight and why. Clarity is important for a boy, and The world around us lacks it.”
“I knew my teachers at school were Nazis and I couldn’t look up to them. But I could look up to Gary Cooper,” he told The Hollywood Reporter in 2011. “I think ‘High Noon’ made me want to be a director.”
He soon started making his own short films before graduating to participate in TV shows and specials. He directed his first film “One or the Other” in 1974, followed by “The Consequence” in 1977. Both starred in future “Das Boot” lead Jurgen Prochnow.
However, Peterson himself felt that he would forever be defined by the anti-war classic “Das Boot,” and he didn’t shy away but embraced that.
“So many directors have one of their films. It’s the one that changes everything for you and that people will always talk about. I’m lucky to have that film,” he told DW.
“You really feel like war is hell – especially submarine warfare, they feel like sardines. The claustrophobia in the movie is there.”
Peterson died at home, according to Deadline, with his wife Maria-Antoinette Borgel by his side since 1978 for 50 years.
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