Roots producer Wolper dies at 82
Wolper, whose career included producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles, died quietly on Tuesday night of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his spokesman Dale Olson. The producer was at home in Beverly Hills with his wife of 36 years, Gloria, by his side. […]
Wolper, whose career included producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Olympic games in Los Angeles, died quietly on Tuesday night of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson’s disease, said his spokesman Dale Olson.
The producer was at home in Beverly Hills with his wife of 36 years, Gloria, by his side.
In some 50 years in show business, Wolper and his company made more than 300 films and TV programs, accumulating over 150 awards including Oscars, Emmys, Golden Globes and Peabody’s, and he was inducted into the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences’ Television Hall of Fame.
Wolper earned an Oscar, the film industry’s top honour, for his 1959 documentary “The Race for Space,” and was a producer or executive producer on several movies including 1971’s “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory” and 1997’s “L.A. Confidential.”
But it was “Roots” that may well have been his high-water mark. The 1977 mini-series was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Alex Haley and traced the history of a family dating to its forefather, an African man named Kunta Kinte, who is sold into slavery in America.
The show followed his family through numerous episodes of U.S. history seen through the perspective of black Americans, and the large cast included actors such as Ben Vereen, Leslie Uggams, Cicely Tyson and LeVar Burton.
Born January 11, 1928, in New York City, Wolper attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and the University of Southern California, where he studied Cinema and Journalism.
In 1949, upon leaving USC, Wolper established a TV distribution company, selling old films and serials with characters including Flash Gordon to TV stations across the United States.
By the 1950s, he was producing shows on his own and made “The Race for Space” about the U.S. and Russian competition to be the first countries to send men into outer space.
Over the years, Wolper’s reputation as a leading maker of documentaries helped him forge relationships with the likes of the Smithsonian Institution, Time Magazine and the National Geographic Society to make TV documentaries and specials.
“I will never forget what you did to start my career,” wrote Jacques Cousteau in a letter to Wolper after he introduced the undersea adventurer to TV in 1967 with the Cousteau specials.
In 1972, he produced the documentary feature film “Visions of Eight,” the official film of the 1972 Munich Olympics, and as the decade progressed and mini-series became a staple of TV viewing, Wolper transformed best-selling books into top-rated shows, including “The Thorn Birds” and “North and South.”
He continued to work throughout the next two decades and staged elaborate live events, such as Liberty Weekend in 1986, a four-day celebration in New York, to commemorate the 100th anniversary and the completion of the restoration of the Statue of Liberty.
Along with his awards, the University of Southern California houses the David L. Wolper Centre, containing the producer’s 50-year collection of papers and memorabilia.
Wolper, whose middle initial ‘L’ had no name with it but was meant to avoid confusion with an uncle, is survived by his wife Gloria, three children and 10 grandchildren.