Trivia

In Germany he achieved his greatest fame as the eccentric but friendly trapper Sam Hawkens in a number of highly successful Karl May film adaptions during the 1960s. He reprised his role as Sam Hawkens in a television series from 1980.

Wolter appeared in nearly 220 films and television series in his over 60 years as a character actor.

He began his long career at the Berlin stage and cabaret during the late 1940s.

In 1961, he appeared as the bald headed Sowjet agent Borodenko in Billy Wilder's comedy One, Two, Three with James Cagney and Horst Buchholz. Another Hollywood film with Wolter in a supporting role was Cabaret (1972), where he played Liza Minnelli's neighbour Herr Ludwig, an erotic book publisher who later turns out to be a Nazi.

He also appeared in a few musical films with singing child star Heintje Simons.

He made his first film appearance in Die Frauen des Herrn S. and quickly achieved prominence as an actor for comedic supporting roles.

As his film roles got more obscure during his later years, he turned more and more towards television since the 1970s. He appeared in some of the most successful German television series.

In 2002, he caused a motorway accident with three deaths. He was sentenced to ten months on conditional discharge.

His father was a circus performer, his mother a musician.