Judge Joseph Wapner, Star Of ‘The People’s Court,’ Dies At 97
Image by Getty Images
(JTA) — Joseph Wapner, the retired judge who starred in the first television reality show, has died.
Wapner died on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 97.
Wapner was the star of “The People’s Court,” which premiered in September 1981. He heard thousands of cases during his 12 years on the show, according to the entertainment website TMZ.
Before appearing as a judge on television, Wapner served as a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge.
Wapner’s father was an immigrant to the United States from Romania who became an attorney, and his mother an immigrant from Russia. He was born and grew up in Los Angeles.
Wapner is a graduate of the University of Southern California and the USC Law School..
He was appointed to the Los Angeles Municipal Court in 1959 and two years later to the Los Angeles County Superior Court, where he served for 18 years before retiring in 1979. He also served as president of the California Judges Association.
Wapner received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2009. He wrote a popular memoir titled “A View from the Bench.”
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
