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.

[2] 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).

[8] He won an Academy Award for the 1971 film The Hellstrom Chronicle, about the study of insects, which he executive produced.

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.