Peter Werner Obituary – Death: Prolific TV Director & Oscar Winner Peter Werner Cause Of Death

Peter Werner, a renowned TV director who received an Emmy nomination and won an Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film in 1977, passed away unexpectedly in Wilmington, NC due to heart complications caused by a torn aorta. He was 76 years old.

Born in January 1947 in New York City, Werner earned Master’s degrees in education and documentary filmmaking. After serving as a VISTA Volunteer in downtown Detroit, he co-founded a Quaker high school in Deerfield, MA, and met Frances Flaherty, the widow of Robert Flaherty, who mentored him. He later made a documentary about her that aired on PBS, produced by his brother Tom Werner, who went on to become a successful TV comedy producer.

Werner’s short film In the Region of Ice, based on the Joyce Carol Oates short story and screened at the New York Film Festival, earned him an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short. He then directed numerous documentaries, TV movies and miniseries, episodic television, and pilots, including the one for Nash Bridges.

Werner directed episodes for several well-known TV series, including Ghost Whisperer, Medium, The Wonder Years, Moonlighting, Justified, and Law & Order: SVU. He was nominated for four Emmy and three DGA Awards during his career and won an ACE cable Award for The Image and a Peabody for LBJ: The Early Years.

Peter Werner was remembered by his colleagues as a talented director and a kind-hearted human being. He is survived by his wife, Kedren, children Lillie, Katharine, and James, and grandchildren Asher, Indira, and Uma.