ATHENS (AP) ― He was known for his slow and dream-like directing style and had enough stamina at 76 to be working on his latest movie.

But award-winning Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos was killed in a road accident Tuesday after being hit by a motorcycle while walking across a road close to a movie set near Athens’ main port of Piraeus.

The driver, who was also injured and hospitalized, was later identified as an off-duty police officer.

The accident occurred while Angelopoulos was working on his upcoming movie “The Other Sea.”

Angelopoulos had won numerous awards for his movies, mostly at European film festivals, during a career that spanned more than 40 years.

In 1995, he won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival for “Ulysses’ Gaze,” starring American actor Harvey Keitel. Three years later, he won the main prize at the festival, the Palme d’Or, for “Eternity and a Day,” starring Swiss actor Bruno Ganz.

“The atmosphere, symbolism and historical context of his cinematic storytelling went beyond the art form that he worked in and inspired young filmmakers,” Greek President Karolos Papoulias said Wednesday. “(This) occurred at a time when he was extremely creative and the country was in need of his insight, making his absence all the more painful.”

Survived by his wife Phoebe and three daughters, Angelopoulos is to be buried Friday at Athens’ First Cemetery.

Greece’s state Ambulance Service, meanwhile, has ordered an inquiry into reports that paramedics arrived at the scene of the accident 45 minutes after they were called.