Wolfgang Petersen

Born: 14th March 1941
Where: Emden, Germany

The director first attracted attention with his claustrophobic action thriller following the fate of Germany's U-Boat submariners - Das Boot.

The movie, which was nominated for six Oscars, set Petersen in motion to direct a series of big-budget movies including In The Line of Fire and Troy.

Growing up in the aftermath of World War II, Petersen developed a passion for all things American and by the age of 11 had decided that making movies was what he wanted to do with his life.

Initially drawn to the films of John Ford, he went on to immerse himself in the directors of the French Nouvelle Vague, especially Francois Truffaut, whom he cites as his most important influence.

After starting out as an actor and director in Hamburg theatre during the 1960s, Wolfgang enrolled in film school and shortly after graduating made his directorial debut for German TV with I Will Kill You, Wolf.

After shooting the chess thriller Black and White Like Night and Day, he reteamed with Prochnow for Das Boot, at the time the most expensive German film ever made (about £8.5 million).

Das Boot won international acclaim and earned a total of six Academy Award nominations, becoming the highest-grossing foreign language film ever released in the US at that time.

After the success of Das Boot, Wolfgang moved toward Hollywood filmmaking with the German-American co-production of a fairy tale, The Neverending Story.

Carrying a price tag of £19 million, his first English-language picture became the highest grosser in German box office history.

In 1991, he helmed the mystery-thriller Shattered starring Tom Berenger and followed that with In The Line of Fire featuring Clint Eastwood.

In 1997, Wolfgang returned to the film that made him, and supervised the director's cut of Das Boot.

Dustin Hoffman and Rene Russo starred in the virus thriller Outbreak and Harrison Ford played the US President in the airborne drama Air Force One.

In 2000, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg starred in the fishing trawler action drama The Perfect Storm.

Recent work has included the £140m Troy, featuring Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom.