Wolfgang Petersen, the gifted German director behind the memorable likes of Das Boot, In The Line Of Hearth, The NeverEnding Story and The Good Storm, has died. He was 81.

Petersen grew up in Germany because it emerged from World Conflict II and turned to films as his foremost ethical compass. He attended Hamburg’s Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums between 1953 and 1960. After commencement, he directed performs at Hamburg’s Ernst Deutsch Theater.

In 1966, he attended Berlin’s Movie and Tv Academy, which led him to begin his display profession directing TV films. Engaged on German TV sequence Tatort, he met and directed actor Jurgen Prochnow, who turned a artistic collaborator and starred because the U-boat captain in what’s considered one of Petersen’s most well-known films – 1981’s Das Boot.

The director’s first movie was 1974 psychological thriller One Or The Different Of Us, which additionally starred Prochnow. He adopted that with Die Konsequenz, an adaptation of Alexander Ziegler’s autobiographical novel about gay love, which was controversial sufficient that one community refused to point out it on TV.

Das Boot launched him to the world and Hollywood got here calling. He made fantasy journey The NeverEnding Story, which led to a wider profession.

Highlights included the likes of Enemy Mine, Air Pressure One, In The Line Of Hearth, Outbreak, The Good Storm, Troy and Poseidon, which proved to be his final movie for American firms, although he returned to Germany to remake his 1976 TV film Vier Gegen Die Financial institution.

Petersen is survived by his second spouse, Maria-Antoinette Borgel, and son Daniel Petersen, a writer-director.