|
 Wapner's son, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Fred
Wapner, told CNN his father died at his home in Los Angeles of
natural causes. A grandson, Gabriel Wapner, confirmed the death
to the Washington Post, which said Wapner had suffered several
strokes in recent years.
From 1981 through 1993, Wapner served as an arbitrator on "The
People's Court," resolving disputes that were usually trivial,
with both parties in the litigation agreeing to abide by his
ruling.
Wapner handled two cases on each half-hour show, ruling with a
commanding demeanor and basing decisions on his three decades as
a lawyer and judge. He was stiff but sometimes showed a dry wit.
The show made Wapner an unlikely judicial superstar and pop
culture touchstone and its catchphrase - "Don't take the law
into your own hands: you take 'em to court, the People's Court"
- worked its way into daily conversations.
Wapner was spoofed on comedy shows, suggested for a seat on the
U.S. Supreme Court and became a key element of Dustin Hoffman's
Academy Award-winning portrayal of an autistic savant in the
1988 movie "Rain Man."
Hoffman's character was obsessed with watching "The People's
Court," reciting the show's introduction and counting down the
minutes until Wapner was on the air.
In a 1989 survey by the Washington Post, 54 percent of
respondents were familiar with Wapner, but only 9 percent could
identify William Rehnquist as U.S. chief justice.
CAME OUT OF RETIREMENT
"The People's Court" was the brainchild of two game-show mavens
and they asked Wapner if he would be interested in coming out of
retirement to preside.
The show fared well as a syndicated series, airing on more than
160 U.S. television stations in the 1980s and in 20 foreign
countries.
The show's staff looked through pending small-claims cases to
find people willing to resolve their disputes on the show rather
than in a real court. Many cases were ordinary - overdue rent,
damage to a car or a broken oral contract - but others were
unique. That is how a stripper ended up before Wapner
complaining that attendees at a bachelor's party refused to pay
because they thought she was unattractive.
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The show's producers paid any damages or costs that Wapner might
levy.
Wapner was dropped from the show in 1993 and a new version of "The
People's Court" made its debut in 1997 with Ed Koch, the former New
York mayor, on the bench. He was replaced two years later by Jerry
Sheindlin, the husband of Judy Sheindlin, star of the similar "Judge
Judy" show.
Wapner found Sheindlin's acerbic style to be not very judicial.
"She's discourteous and she's abrasive," Wapner told the New York
Post in 1992. "She's not slightly insulting. She's insulting in
capital letters."
Wapner was born Nov. 15, 1919, in Los Angeles and attended Hollywood
High School, where he dated classmate and future movie star Lana
Turner.
After majoring in philosophy at the University of Southern
California, he joined the Army, serving as a lieutenant in the
Pacific theater during World War Two. He was awarded a Purple Heart
and given a Bronze Star for pulling a wounded soldier out of
machine-gun fire.
After the war, Wapner graduated from the USC law school and went
into practice with his father. In 1959, he was appointed to a
municipal court that handled traffic and small-claims cases and was
named two years later to California's Superior Court, handling
criminal and civil cases, until he retired from the bench in 1979.
After his run on "The People's Court," Wapner appeared on "Animal
Court" for the Animal Planet cable channel, presiding over cases
involving animals.
(Additional reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Diane
Craft and Peter Cooney)
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