Wolfgang Petersen, the Oscar-nominated German filmmaker best known for his WWII classic Das Boot, the true story The Perfect Storm, and the presidential thrillers In the Line of Fire and Air Force One, has died.
He was 81 and had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
The director's passing was confirmed by his production company. He died peacefully at his home in Los Angeles on Friday.
After acclaim in his native Germany on both film and television, Petersen's international breakthrough came with 1981's Das Boot (The Boat), the story of a German U-boat crew during the Battle of the Atlantic.
Nominated for six Oscars, including Best Director and Adapted Screenplay for Petersen, Das Boot provided passage to Hollywood.
Showing his range in his first English-language films, Petersen followed Das Boot with the 1984 children's fantasy adventure The Neverending Story and the 1985 sci-fi movie Enemy Mine.
In the 1990s, he was behind the lens directing two screen legends: Clint Eastwood as the veteran presidential bodyguard out to stop an assassin in In the Line of Fire (1993) and Harrison Ford as the embattled Commander-in-Chief in Air Force One (1997).
2000 saw Petersen release his most acclaimed film since Das Boot, the George Clooney-starring The Perfect Storm. Based on the book of the same name by Sebastian Junger, it told the true story of the crew of the Gloucester, Massachusetts fishing boat the Andrea Gail.
Petersen followed it with the Brad Pitt-starring historical epic Troy (2004), a box office flop in the US that fared better overseas.
The director's other works included the 1991 noir Shattered, the virus thriller Outbreak (1995) and Poseidon (2006), a disappointing remake of the iconic disaster movie The Poseidon Adventure.
His final film, the 2016 German heist caper Vier Gegen die Bank (Four Against the Bank), was a remake of his own 1976 TV movie of the same name.
Petersen is survived by his wife, Maria Antoinette Borgel, son Daniel, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren.
