PORTRET z HISTORIĄ David Lloyd Wolper

David Lloyd Wolper (11 stycznia 1928 – 10 sierpnia 2010) był amerykańskim producentem telewizyjnym i filmowym, odpowiedzialnym za takie produkcje jak Roots, The Thorn Birds oraz North and South, a także za filmy kinowe Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) i L.A. Confidential (1997). W 1985 roku, podczas 57. ceremonii wręczenia Oscarów, otrzymał   nagrodę im. Jeana Hersholta za działalność humanitarną za swoją pracę przy produkcji ceremonii otwarcia i zamknięcia Letnich Igrzysk Olimpijskich w Los Angeles w 1984 roku, a także za pomoc w sprowadzeniu igrzysk do tego miasta. Jego film z 1971 roku The Hellstrom Chronicle, przy którym pełnił funkcję producenta wykonawczego i który poświęcony był badaniom nad owadami, zdobył Nagrodę Akademii Filmowej.

Wolper urodził się w Nowym Jorku w rodzinie żydowskiej pochodzenia wschodnioeuropejskiego jako syn Anny (z domu Fass) i Irvinga S. Wolpera. Przez krótki czas studiował na Drake University w Des Moines w stanie Iowa, po czym przeniósł się na University of Southern California.

W 1959 roku Wolper wyreżyserował film dokumentalny The Race for Space, który otrzymał nominację do Oscara, a także inne produkcje, m.in. Biography (1961–1963), The Making of the President 1960 (1963) oraz Four Days in November (1964). W 1964 roku sprzedał swoją firmę koncernowi Metromedia za 3,6 miliona dolarów. W październiku 1968 roku zapłacił 750 000 dolarów, aby odejść z Metromedii, zabierając ze sobą sześć projektów filmowych. Biblioteka produkcji sprzed 1968 roku należy do Cube Entertainment (dawniej International Creative Exchange), natomiast biblioteka filmów po 1970 roku — wraz z firmą produkcyjną Wolpera, Wolper Productions (obecnie The Wolper Organization) — od listopada 1976 roku jest własnością  Warner Bros.

W 1969 roku Wolper otrzymał Golden Plate Award  przyznawaną przez American Academy of Achievement.

Zdobył Oscara za film The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971), opowiadający o badaniach nad owadami, przy którym był producentem wykonawczym. Wyprodukował również liczne filmy i seriale dokumentalne, w tym The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (telewizja, 1968), Appointment With Destiny (serial TV, 1971–1973), Visions of Eight (1973), This Is Elvis (1981),  Imagine: John Lennon (1988) oraz wiele innych.

13 marca 1974 roku jedna z ekip Wolpera, realizująca dla National Geographic film o historii australopiteka w ośrodku narciarskim Mammoth Mountain, zginęła w katastrofie lotniczej, gdy samolot Corvair 440 linii Sierra Pacific Airlines uderzył w pasmo White Mountains krótko po starcie z lotniska Eastern Sierra Regional Airport w Bishop w Kalifornii. Zginęło wszystkich 35 osób na pokładzie, w tym 31 członków ekipy Wolpera. Nagrany materiał został odnaleziony we wraku i wyemitowany w serialu telewizyjnym Primal Man. Przyczyna katastrofy pozostaje nieznana.

W 1984 roku Wolper pomógł sprowadzić Letnie Igrzyska Olimpijskie do Los Angeles oraz był producentem ceremonii otwarcia i zamknięcia. W następnym roku otrzymał za to Nagrodę im. Jeana Hersholta podczas ceremonii wręczenia Oscarów.

  „… Davida L.Walper spotkałem i fotografowałem 4 lipca 1986 r. w Nowym Jorku nieopodal Statui Wolności, ceremonia otwarcia odbyła się na Governors Island w nowojorskim porcie. W wydarzeniu uczestniczył prezydent Francji François Mitterrand, który przekazał Amerykanom swoje gratulacje i życzenia. Towarzyszyli mu sekretarz spraw wewnętrznych USA Donald Hodel, producent wykonawczy David L. Wolper oraz Lee Iacocca, przewodniczący Fundacji Statuy Wolności i Ellis Island. Wspólnie przedstawili oni ówczesnego prezydenta Stanów Zjednoczonych Ronalda Reagana.

Ważną częścią ceremonii były występy muzyczne. Liberty Orchestra, pod dyrekcją Johna Williamsa, wykonała po raz pierwszy jego kompozycję Liberty Fanfare, z udziałem fanfarowych trębaczy Liberty Weekend. Chór Liberty Weekend, prowadzony przez N. Brocka McElherana, profesora muzyki w Crane School of Music na Uniwersytecie Stanowym Nowego Jorku w Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam), składał się również z absolwentów Chóru Crane School of Music. Kenneth Mack Jr. zaśpiewał hymn narodowy Stanów Zjednoczonych.

Podczas ceremonii przemówienia wygłosili także Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor oraz Frank Sinatra…” – Czesław Czapliński.

          W 1988 roku Wolper został wprowadzony do Television Hall of Fame. Za swoją działalność telewizyjną otrzymał również gwiazdę w Hollywood Walk of Fame.

David L. Wolper zmarł 10 sierpnia 2010 roku w swoim domu w Beverly Hills na skutek zastoinowej niewydolności serca oraz powikłań choroby Parkinsona. Został pochowany na cmentarzu  Forest Lawn Memorial Park – Hollywood Hills.

Jego firma była zaangażowana w następujące produkcje. Początkowo Wolper był ich dystrybutorem, a od czasu The Race for Space (1958) pełnił również funkcję producenta wykonawczego:1949 – Funny Bunnies (36 odcinków); 1953 – Adventures of Superman (90 odcinków);1954 – Baseball Hall of Fame (75 odcinków); 1954 – O.S.S. (32 odcinki); 1954 – Grand Ole Opry (39 odcinków); 1955 – Congressional Investigator (26 odcinków); 1958 – Men from Boys – The First Eight Weeks; 1958 – The Race for Space; 1959 – Project: Man in Space; 1960 – Hollywood: The Golden Years; 1961 – Biography of a Rookie: The Willie Davis Story; 1961 – The Rafer Johnson Story; 1962 – Hollywood: The Great Stars; 1962 – Hollywood: The Fabulous Era; 1962 – D-Day: June 6, 1944; 1962 – Biography; 1962–1963 – Story of…; 1963 – Hollywood and the Stars; 1963 – Escape to Freedom; 1963 – Kreboizen and Cancer: Thirteen Years of Bitter Conflict; 1963 – The Passing Years (przeróbka Story of a Year: 1927); 1963 – The Making of the President 1960; 1963–1964 – programy specjalne dla United Artists; 1964 – The Legend of Marilyn Monroe; 1964 – The Quest for Peace; 1964 – A Thousand Days: A Tribute to John Fitzgerald Kennedy; 1964 – Men in Crisis; 1964 – Four Days in November; 1965 – France: Conquest to Liberation; 1965 – Korea: The 38th Parallel; 1965 – Prelude to War; 1965 – Japan: A New Dawn over Asia; 1965 – 007: The Incredible World of James Bond; 1965 – Let My People Go: The Story of Israel; 1965 – October Madness: The World Series; 1965 – Race for the Moon; 1965 – Miss Television U.S.A.; 1965 – The Really Big Family: The Duke of Seattle & Their 18 Children; 1965 – Revolution in Our Time; 1965 – The Bold Men; 1965 – The General; 1965 – The Teenage Revolution; 1965 – The Way Out Men; 1965 – In Search of Man; 1965 – Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon; 1965 – Revolution in the 3 R’s; 1965 – The Thin Blue Line; 1965 – Silent Partners; 1965–1966 – The March of Time; 1965–1975 – programy specjalne National Geographic Society; 1966 – The Making of the President, 1964; 1966 – Wall Street: Where the Money Is; 1966 – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House; 1966 – Destination Safety; 1966 – China: Roots of Madness; 1966–1968 – The World of Animals;

1967 – The Big Land; 1967 – A Nation of Immigrants; 1967 – Untamed World; 1967 – A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hollywood; 1967 – Movin’ with Nancy; 1967–1968 – Do Blondes Have More Fun?; 1967–1968 – The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau; 1968 – The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; 1968 – The Dangerous Years; 1968 – California; 1968 – With Love, Sophia; 1968 – Monte Carlo: C’est La Rose; 1968 – Sophia: A Self Portrait; 1968 – The Highlights of the Ice Capades; 1968 – On the Trail of Stanley and Livingstone; 1968 – Hollywood: The Selznick Years; 1968 – The Devil’s Brigade; 1969 – The Bridge at Remagen; 1969 – If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium; 1969 – Los Angeles: Where It’s At; 1970 – The Unfinished Journey of Robert F. Kennedy; 1971 – The Hellstrom Chronicle; 1971 – Willy Wonka i fabryka czekolady; 1971–1973 – Appointment With Destiny; 1973 – Visions of Eight; 1974–1976 – Chico and the Man; 1977 – Roots; 1978 – Roots: One Year Later; 1978 – Roots: The Next Generations; 1981 – This Is Elvis; 1983 – The Thorn Birds; 1984 – Ceremonie XXIII Letnich Igrzysk Olimpijskich w Los Angeles; 1985 – North and South; 1986 – North and South: Book II; 1986 – Liberty Weekend; 1988 – Imagine: John Lennon; 1989 – The Plot to Kill Hitler; 1990 – Dillinger; 1994 – Heaven and Hell: North and South Book III; 1996 – The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years; 1997 – L.A. Confidential; 1998 – Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary Show; 1999 – Celebrate the Century.

PORTRAIT with HISTORY David Lloyd Wolper

  David Lloyd Wolper (January 11, 1928 – August 10, 2010) was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as Roots, The Thorn Birds, and North and South, and the theatrically-released films Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory(1971) and L.A. Confidential (1997). He was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the 57th Academy Awards in 1985 for his work producing the opening and closing ceremonies of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, as well as helping to bring the games there. His 1971 film (as executive producer) about the study of insects, The Hellstrom Chronicle, won an Academy Award. 

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 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.

  “… I met and photographed David L. Wolper on July 4, 1986, in New York, near the Statue of Liberty. The opening ceremony took place on Governors Island in New York Harbor. The event was attended by French President François Mitterrand, who conveyed his congratulations and best wishes to the American people. He was accompanied by U.S. Secretary of the Interior Donald Hodel, executive producer David L. Wolper, and Lee Iacocca, Chairman of the Statue of Liberty–Ellis Island Foundation. Together, they introduced the then President of the United States, Ronald Reagan.

An important part of the ceremony was the musical performances. The Liberty Orchestra, conducted by John Williams, performed for the first time his composition Liberty Fanfare, with the participation of the Liberty Weekend fanfare trumpeters. The Liberty Weekend Choir, conducted by N. Brock McElheran, Professor of Music at the Crane School of Music at the State University of New York at Potsdam (SUNY Potsdam), also included alumni of the Crane School of Music Choir. Kenneth Mack Jr. sang the national anthem of the United States.

During the ceremony, speeches were also delivered by Gregory Peck, Elizabeth Taylor, and Frank Sinatra…” — Czesław Czapliński.

  He was awarded the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award at the Academy Awards the following year.

In 1988, Wolper was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. 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. 

His company was involved in the following productions. He was a distributor of the early shows, and became an executive producer with The Race for Space in 1958: 1949 Funny Bunnies (36 episodes); 1953 Adventures of Superman (90 episodes); 1954 Baseball Hall of Fame (75 episodes); 1954 O.S.S. (32 episodes); 1954 Grand Ole Opry (39 episodes); 1955 Congressional Investigator (26 episodes); 1958 Men from Boys - The First Eight Weeks; 1958 The Race for Space; 1959 Project: Man in Space; 1960 Hollywood: The Golden Years; 1961 Biography of a Rookie: The Willie Davis Story; 1961 The Rafer Johnson Story; 1962 Hollywood: The Great Stars; 1962 Hollywood: The Fabulous Era; 1962 D-Day June 6, 1944; 1962 Biography;1962–1963 Story of... ;1963 Hollywood and the Stars; 1963 Escape to Freedom; 1963 Kreboizen and Cancer: Thirteen Years of Bitter Conflict; 1963 The Passing Years: Rework of Story of a Year; 1927; 1963 The Making of the President 1960; 1963–1964 Specials for United Artists; 1964 The Legend of Marilyn Monroe; 1964 The Quest for Peace; 1964 A Thousand Days: A Tribute to John Fitzgerald Kennedy; 1964 Men in Crisis; 1964 Four Days in November; 1965 France: Conquest to Liberation; 1965 Korea: The 38th Parallel; 1965 Prelude to War (Beginning of World War II); 1965 Japan: A New Dawn over Asia (Japan in the 20th Century); 1965 007: The Incredible World of James Bond; 1965 Let My People Go: The Story of Israel; 1965 October Madness: The World Series; 1965 Race for the Moon; 1965 Miss Television U.S.A.; 1965 The Really Big Family: The Duke of Seattle & Their 18 Children; 1965 Revolution in Our Time; 1965 The Bold Men 1965 The General; 1965 The Teenage Revolution; 1965 The Way Out Men; 1965 In Search of Man; 1965 Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon; 1965 Revolution in the 3 R's; 1965 The Thin Blue Line; 1965 In Search of Man; 1965 Silent Partners; 1965–1966 The March of Time; 1965–1975 National Geographic Society Specials; 1966 The Making of the President, 1964; 1966 Wall Street Where the Money Is; 1966 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the White House; 1966 Destination Safety; 1966 China: Roots of Madness; 1966–1968 The World of Animals; 1967 The Big Land; 1967 A Nation of Immigrants; 1967 Untamed World; 1967 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Hollywood; 1967 Movin' with Nancy; 1967–1968 Do Blondes Have More Fun?; 1967–1968 The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau; 1968 Rise and Fall of the Third Reich; 1968 The Dangerous Years; 1968 California; 1968 With Love, Sophia; 1968 Monte Carlo: C'est La Rose; 1968 Sophia: A Self Portrait; 1968 The Highlights of the Ice Capades; 1968 1968 On the Trail of Stanley and Livingstone; 1968 Hollywood: The Selznick Years; 1968 The Devil's Brigade; 1968 The Making of the President,; 1968 1969 The Bridge at Remagen; 1969 If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium; 1969 Los Angeles: Where It's At ;1970 The Unfinished Journey of Robert F. Kennedy; 1970 I Love My Wife; 1970–1972 The Plimpton Specials; 1971 Say Goodbye; 1971 They've Killed President Lincoln; 1971 The Hellstrom Chronicle; 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; 1971–1973 Appointment With Destiny; 1972 King, Queen, Knave; 1972One Is a Lonely Number;

1972 Here Comes Tomorrow: The Fear Fighters; 1972 Republican Party Films; 1972 Make Mine Red, White and Blue; 1972 Top of The Month (3 half-hour specials);1972 Of Thee I Sing; 1972–1973 The Explorers; 1973 The 500 Pound Jerk; 1973 Wattstax; 1973 Visions of Eight; 1973–1974 Primal Man Specials; 1973–1975 The American Heritage Specials; 1974 This Week In The NBA (Series of 20 half-hours); 1974 NBA Game of the Week Featurettes; 1974 Get Christie Love!; 1974 Judgment Specials; 1974 The Morning After; 1974 Unwed Father; 1974 Men of the Dragon; 1974 The First Woman President; 1974 Love from A to Z; 1974 Birds Do It, Bees Do It; 1974 The Animal Within; 1974 Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus; 1974–1975 Get Christie Love!; 1974–1975 Smithsonian Specials; 1974–1975 Sandburg's Lincoln; 1974–1976 Chico and the Man; 1975 Death Stalk; 1975 I Will Fight No More Forever; 1975–1976 Welcome Back, Kotter;1976 Brenda Starr; 1976 Collision Course; 1976 Celebration: The American Spirit; 1976 The Unexplained; 1976 Victory at Entebbe; 1976 Mysteries of the Great Pyramids; 1977 Roots; 1978 Roots: One Year Later; 1978 The Little Mermaid (Anderusen dowa: Ningyo hime or Andersen Story: The Mermaid Princess); 1978 Roots: The Next Generations; 1980 The Man Who Saw Tomorrow; 1980 Moviola; 1981 This Is Elvis; 1981 Hollywood: The Gift of Laughter; 1981 Small World; 1981 Murder Is Easy 1982 The Mystic Warrior;1982 Casablanca; 1983 The Thorn Birds; 1984 XXIIIrd Olympiad, Los Angeles; 1984 1984 His Mistress; 1985 North and South; 1986 North and South: Book II; 1986 Liberty Weekend; 1987 The Betty Ford Story; 1987 Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story; 1988 What Price Victory; 1988 Imagine: John Lennon; 1988 Roots: The Gift; 1989 The Plot to Kill Hitler; 1989 Murder in Mississippi; 1990 Warner Bros. Celebration of Tradition, June 2, 1990; Dillinger 1990; When You Remember Me; 1991 Best of the Worst; 1991 Bed of Lies; 1992 Celebrations; 1992 Fatal Deception: Mrs. Lee Harvey Oswald; 1993 Celebration of a Life: Steven J. Ross Chairman of Time Warner; 1993 The Flood: Who Will Save Our Children?; 1994 Heaven and Hell: North and South Book III; 1994 On Trial; 1994 Golf - The Greatest Game; 1994 Heroes of the Game; 1994 Without Warning; 1994 Murder in the First; 1995 Prince for a Day; 1996 The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years; 1996 Surviving Picasso; 1997 L.A. Confidential; 1998 Terror at the Mall; 1998 Warner Bros. 75th Anniversary Show; 1998 A Will of Their Own; 1998 Confirmation; 1998 Legends, Icons and Superstars; 1999 To Serve and Protect; 1999 Celebrate the Century.