Perry Wolff

Perry Wolff was a television newswriter, producer, and documentarian.

In 1946, Wolff joined CBS Chicago affiliate WBBM as a news and public affairs writer. From 1947 to 1950 he wrote several radio documentaries, including The Quiet Answer (1948) and Report Uncensored (1950).

In 1951, Wolff joined CBS News in New York as a producer for the CBS Morning News and CBS Saturday News. From 1953 to 1955, he was the executive producer, director, and writer for the Peabody Award-winning series Adventure, which was produced in conjunction with the American Museum of Natural History.

In 1956, Wolff produced the documentary series Air Power, for which he also wrote 23 of the 26 scripts. After this assignment, Wolff took a leave of absence from CBS. During this period he traveled in Europe, living in Paris long enough to complete two feature-length documentaries, Smashing the Third Reich and Kamikaze.

In 1961, Wolff rejoined the CBS News and Public Affairs Department as a staff writer-producer, and in 1963 he was appointed executive producer of CBS News. For CBS, Wolff produced and wrote numerous award-winning television documentaries and specials including A Tour of the White House with Mrs. John F. Kennedy, 1945, The Italians, The Great American Novel, Black History: Lost, Stolen or Strayed, The Japanese, The American Revolution, The Selling of the Pentagon, Conversations with Eric Sevareid, Inside Hollywood: The Movie Business, Whose America Is It?, The Vanishing Family: Crisis in Black America, The Burger Years, The Battle for Afghanistan, and American Dream, American Nightmare…The Seventies.

Wolff also was Oscar-nominated for his 1996 short film, An Essay on Matisse.

Wolff died February 17, 2019, in Portland, Oregon. He was 97.