L. Cohen/WireImage
“An amazing life has ended but his lifelong commitment to fight the good fight, for peace, for all humanity, will live on, ” Jeff Wexler wrote.
Haskell Wexler won two Oscars for cinematography, for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” in 1966 and for “Bound for Glory” 10 years later.
He also shared cinematography credit with Richard Pearce for the Oscar award-winning short documentary “Interviews With My Lai Veterans.”
Wexler also wrote, directed and largely financed two feature films, the highly politically charged “Medium Cool” in 1969 and “Latino” in 1985. He also directed 2007’s “From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, ” an adaptation of a play about labor leader Harry Bridges and unionization.
“We are deeply saddened by the death of one of our most esteemed board members, ” said International Cinematographers Guild President Steven Poster. “Haskell’s cinematography has always been an inspiration to so many of us not only in the Guild, but in the entire industry.”
His cool, uncluttered but visually distinct style grew out of his years as an educational and industrial filmmaker, which led to his photographing of documentaries such as Joseph Strick’s “The Savage Eye” in 1959. He continued to invest his own money in films that promoted causes because he saw them “as an instrument for social change, ” he said.
Even in the vast number of commercial television spots he shot (he was partnered in commercial companies with cinematographers such as Vilmos Zsigmond and Conrad Hall), he was concerned about “the morality of the products, ” he once told Variety. He stopped shooting cigarette commercials long before they were banned on U.S. television (though he had lensed most of the famous Marlboro commercials).
Wexler’s devotion to such causes belied his wealthy upbringing. “One person has a responsibility not just for himself but for inter-relationships with the existences of others and the world, ” he once explained. That view not only informed his documentaries but was consistent with the subject matter of many of his feature assignments.
Wexler joined the International Photographers Guild in 1947. He co-directed and shot documentary short “The Living City” in 1953 with John Barnes; it was nominated for an Oscar. He worked into the Hollywood system starting with Roger Corman’s 1957 independent feature “Stakeout on Dope Street, ” directed by Irvin Kershner, and several other low-budget films. He also worked as an assistant cameraman on “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet.”
