Wolper was born in New York City, into an eastern European
Jewish family, the son of Anna (née Fass) and Irving S. Wolper. He briefly attended
Drake University in
Des Moines, Iowa before transferring to the
University of Southern California. Wolper directed the 1959 documentary
The Race for Space, which was nominated for an
Academy Award, and others including
Biography (1961–63),
The Making of the President 1960 (1963) and
Four Days in November (1964). Wolper then sold his company to
Metromedia for $3.6 million in 1964. In October 1968, he paid $750,000 to leave Metromedia and took six film projects with him. The pre-1968 library is owned by
Cube Entertainment (formerly International Creative Exchange), while the post-1970 library (along with Wolper's production company, Wolper Productions, now known as The Wolper Organization) has been owned by
Warner Bros. since November 1976. In 1965, the
National Geographic Society formed a 10-year partnership with Wolper Productions where Wolper produced successful television specials for the National Geographic Society across three networks
CBS,
ABC and
PBS. In 1969, Wolper received the Golden Plate Award of the
American Academy of Achievement. He won an Academy Award for the 1971 film
The Hellstrom Chronicle, about the study of insects, which he executive produced. He also produced numerous documentaries and documentary series including
The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (TV) (1968),
Appointment With Destiny (1971–73 TV series),
Visions of Eight (1973),
This Is Elvis (1981),
Imagine: John Lennon (1988) and others. On March 13, 1974, one of his crews filming a
National Geographic history of
Australopithecus at
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area was killed when their
Sierra Pacific Airlines Corvair 440 slammed into the
White Mountains shortly after takeoff from
Eastern Sierra Regional Airport in
Bishop, California, killing all 35 on board, including 31 Wolper crew members. The filmed segment was recovered in the wreckage and was broadcast in the television series
Primal Man. The cause of the crash remains unsolved. In 1984, he helped bring the Olympic Games to Los Angeles and produced the opening and closing ceremonies. He was awarded the
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the
Academy Awards the following year. For his work on television, he had received his star on the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. Wolper died on August 10, 2010, of
congestive heart disease and complications of
Parkinson's disease at his Beverly Hills home. He is buried in
Forest Lawn Memorial Park's
Hollywood Hills cemetery. ==Productions==