Marty Stouffer
Marty Stouffer is the narrator and producer of the animal documentary show Wild America. He was raised in Arkansas near Fort Smith.
Life
At age 18, Marty traveled to Alaska on his own with an 8mm movie camera. He became trapped by snowfall in a remote valley, but survived by hunting and trapping local wildlife. He returned home and with the warm reception of his unsophisticated movie of his adventure in the north, decided to pursue a career in wildlife documentary making. In 1970, Marty graduated from the University of Arkansas with a degree in English. From there he traveled to Africa to film a new documentary. While in Africa, he was confronted with massive and wasteful killing of animals and returned to America with the intent to produce films that argued for nature conservation.
Wild America
By the mid-1970s, Marty had produced several full length documentaries but had failed to hit upon a project that was an outstanding success. At this time, he approached the programming managers at Public Broadcasting System (PBS) about a half hour long wildlife show. The managers quickly signed the young Marty Stouffer to the job and Wild America was born. The show went on to become one of the most popular aired by PBS, renowned for its unflinching portrayal of nature, as well as its extensive use of film techniques such as slow motion and close-ups. The show was cancelled after a scandal involving accusations that Stouffer had staged many dramatic encounters between animals, including a mountain lion killing a tame lynx.
The Movie
The lives of Marty Stouffer, and his brothers, Mark and Marshall, in rural Arkansas were captured in the 1997 movie, Wild America. Headlined by child actor Jonathan Taylor Thomas, the movie related how the boys became intrigued with the production of wild life documentaries. The adventure movie has a wilder flavor to it than the Wild America PBS program. Both Mark and Marshall are filmmakers as well.
Post-Wild America
Presently, Marty Stouffer lives near Aspen, Colorado, with his wife and family.