Haskell Wexler

Haskell Wexler (born 1926 February 6) is an award-winning American cinematographer and director. Wexler was judged to be one of history's ten most influencial cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.

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1926 - February 6 - American - Cinematographer

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Wexler was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. After a year of college at the University of California, Berkeley and a tour in the United States Merchant Marines during World War II, he decided to become a filmmaker despite having no experience in the industry. He briefly made industrial films in Chicago, then became an assistant cameraman. 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 television commercials. (He would later found Wexler-Hall, a television commercial production company, with Conrad Hall.) In 1963, he served as the cinematographer on his first big-budget film, Elia Kazan's America, America. Wexler, an outspoken political liberal, reportedly clashed with the politically conservative Kazan. Notwithstanding their personal differences, the film was attractive, Kazan was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award, and Wexler worked steadily in Hollywood thereafter. In 1965, Wexler replaced cinematographer Harry Stradling during the shooting of Mike Nichols' adaption of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? after Stradling and Nichols had a falling out over the look of the film. Wexler won an Academy Award for the film's brutal, black-and-white cinematography in 1967. He won a second in 1976 for Bound for Glory, a biography of Woody Guthrie (whom Wexler had met during his time in the Merchant Marines). Bound for Glory was one of the earliest feature films to use the Steadicam in a famous sequence that also incorporated a crane shot.

Related Topics:
Chicago, Illinois - University of California, Berkeley - United States Merchant Marines - 1959 - The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet - Conrad Hall - 1963 - Elia Kazan - America, America - Academy Award - 1965 - Harry Stradling - Mike Nichols - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? - 1967 - 1976 - Bound for Glory - Woody Guthrie - Steadicam - Crane shot

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Wexler has directed only a handful of movies, but among them was the influential Medium Cool, a film written by Wexler and shot in the cinéma vérité style. It incorporated riot footage from the 1968 Democratic National Convention. In 1988, he won an Independent Spirit Award for his cinematography on John Sayles' Matewan (for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award), and in 1993, he won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers. In 2004, he was the subject of a documentary, Tell Them Who You Are, directed by his son, Mark Wexler.

Related Topics:
Medium Cool - Cinéma vérité - 1968 Democratic National Convention - 1988 - John Sayles - Matewan - 1993 - 2004

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