32 Facts About Haskell Wexler

Haskell Wexler, ASC was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director.

Haskell Wexler won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 1966 and 1976, out of five nominations.

Haskell Wexler was born to a Jewish family in Chicago in 1922.

Haskell Wexler's parents were Simon and Lottie Wexler, whose children included Jerrold, Joyce and Yale.

Haskell Wexler attended the progressive Francis Parker School, where he was best friends with Barney Rosset.

Haskell Wexler became friends with fellow sailor Woody Guthrie, who later gained fame as a folk singer.

Haskell Wexler spent 10 days on a lifeboat before being rescued.

Haskell Wexler returned to Chicago after his discharge in 1946 and began working in the stockroom at his father's company, Allied Radio.

Haskell Wexler decided he wanted to become a filmmaker, although he had no experience, and his father helped him set up a small studio in Des Plaines, Illinois.

Haskell Wexler began by shooting industrial films at Midwest factories.

Haskell Wexler later took freelance jobs as a cameraman, joining the International Photographers Guild in 1947.

Haskell Wexler worked his way up to more technical positions after beginning as an assistant cameraman on various projects.

Haskell Wexler made a number of documentaries, including The Living City, which was nominated for an Academy Award.

Haskell Wexler briefly made industrial films in Chicago, then in 1947 became an assistant cameraman.

Haskell Wexler worked on documentary features and shorts; low-budget docu-dramas such as 1959's The Savage Eye, television's The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and TV commercials.

Haskell Wexler made ten documentary films with director Saul Landau, including Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang, which aired on PBS and won an Emmy Award and a George Polk Award.

In 1963 Haskell Wexler self-funded, produced and photographed the documentary The Bus in which a group of Freedom Riders are followed as they make their way from San Francisco to Washington DC That same year he served as the cinematographer on his first big-budget film, Elia Kazan's America America.

George Lucas, then 20, met Haskell Wexler who shared his hobby of auto racing.

Haskell Wexler pulled a few strings to help Lucas get admitted to the USC Film School.

Haskell Wexler's work was notable for being the first major film in Hollywood history to be shot in color with proper consideration for a person of African descent.

Haskell Wexler recognized that standard lighting tended to produce too much glare on that kind of dark complexion making the actors look bad.

Accordingly, Haskell Wexler toned it down to feature Poitier with better photographic results.

Haskell Wexler was fired as cinematographer during filming of Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation and replaced by Bill Butler.

Haskell Wexler was fired from Milos Forman's 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and again replaced by Bill Butler.

Haskell Wexler believed his dismissal on Cuckoo's Nest was due to his radical left political views as highlighted by his concurrent work on the documentary Underground, in which the left-wing urban guerrilla group The Weather Underground were being interviewed while hiding from the law.

However, he won a second Oscar for Bound for Glory, a biography of Woody Guthrie, whom Haskell Wexler had met during his time in the Merchant Marine.

Haskell Wexler was credited as additional cinematographer on Days of Heaven, which won a Best Cinematography Oscar for Nestor Almendros.

Haskell Wexler was featured on the soundtrack of the film Underground, recorded on Folkways Records in 1976.

Medium Cool, a film written by Haskell Wexler and shot in a cinema verite style, is studied by film students all over the world for its breakthrough form.

In 1988, Haskell Wexler won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography for the John Sayles film Matewan, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award.

Haskell Wexler had two sons, four grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.

Haskell Wexler died in his sleep at the age of 93 on December 27,2015, at his home in Santa Monica, California.