Born May 31, 1946, in Bavaria, Germany, writer, director and actor Rainer Werner Fassbinder began his exceptional and prolific career in experimental theater with the Munich Action Theater, later launching his own company, The Anti-Theater. After making some shorts in the mid-'60s, he moved into full-length features in 1969 with Love Is Colder than Death and Gods of the Plague.

Thereafter, Fassbinder released an average of three features a year, projects that increasingly caught the attention of both German and international critics. Heavily influenced by the works of Jean-Luc Godard and Douglas Sirk, Fassbinder -- a key member of the New German Cinema movement -- did much to revive his country's film industry.

Among his most notable films are The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant (1972), The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979) and Querelle (1982). He died of a drug overdose June 10, 1982.