David Wolper, 'Roots' producer

BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - David L. Wolper, 82, whose landmark 1977 miniseries

Roots

engrossed the nation with its saga of an American family descended from an African slave, has died.

Mr. Wolper died peacefully in his Beverly Hills home Tuesday evening while watching television with his wife, Gloria, spokesman Dale Olson said. Mr. Wolper died of congestive heart disease and complications of Parkinson's disease, Olson said.

He was a consummate salesman and advocate for filmmakers, said Mel Stuart, a veteran feature director and documentarian who worked with Mr. Wolper for two decades.

"He was a dreamer who could make dreams come true," said Stuart, who directed The Making of the President documentaries and Willy Wonka, among other Wolper-produced films.

During his lengthy career, Mr. Wolper produced the children's classic Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and demonstrated his showman instincts with New York's 1986 extravaganza celebrating the Statue of Liberty centennial and the 1984 Olympic Games ceremonies in Los Angeles.

But his TV work remained his best-known accomplishment, particularly Roots, based on the best-seller by Alex Haley. The ABC series was seen in whole or part by 130 million people - more than half the country - when it ran for eight nights in 1977.

The miniseries chronicling Kunta Kinte, enslaved as a teenager in 18th-century West Africa to be sold in America, and his descendants represented a different kind of family story, one told from the black perspective. It was based on Haley's novel, a Pulitzer Prize-winner that mixed accounts of his own ancestors with fiction. The series won a slew of honors including nine Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.

Mr. Wolper also produced several other miniseries, including the 1979 sequel Roots: The Next Generations, The Thorn Birds, and North and South.

A New York City native who was born Jan. 11, 1928, Mr. Wolper studied at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, and the University of Southern California.

After leaving school in 1949, he joined with friends to create Flamingo Films, a TV distribution company, Olson said. Mr. Wolper traveled cross-country to sell old films to the few dozen TV stations then on the air.

His move into production was a splashy one. He obtained Soviet space footage for a documentary that was carried by 100-plus stations after networks refused to air an independent production. The Race for Space earned a 1960 Academy Award nomination.

Before becoming a titan in the miniseries genre, Mr. Wolper had a series of highly successful TV documentaries, including The Making of the President 1960. Time magazine crowned him "Mr. Documentary," Olson said.

He also produced the National Geographic special The World of Jacques-Yves Cousteau, which opened up the ocean depths for television viewers.

Always game for something new, Mr. Wolper branched out into docudramas such as The Trial of Lt. Calley, sitcom hits Welcome Back, Kotter, and Chico and the Man, and films including the Oscar-winning L.A. Confidential.

Beside his artist wife, Gloria, Mr. Wolper is survived by three children from a previous marriage and 10 grandchildren.