Celebrity Biographies
Haskell Wexler
He was considered one of the great cinematographers in history. Haskell Wexler was a five-time Oscar nominee, which he won twice for his work in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “This land is mine.” The filmmaker died at the age of 93 in his sleep at the Providence St. John Medical Center in Santa Monica (California).
Born on February 6, 1922 in Chicago (Illinois), Haskell Wexler belonged to a wealthy family. After serving in the Navy during World War II, he decided to found his own film studios. However, the idea did not work out too well for him, and after being forced to close, he was forced to work as a cinematographer.
He shot such legendary titles as America, America , for Elia Kazan , In the Heat of the Night , and The Thomas Crown Affair , both by Norman Jewison , The Conversation , by Francis Ford Coppola , American Graffiti , by George Lucas , and even collaborated with Néstor Almendros , in Days of Heaven , by Terrence Malick .
In addition to receiving the Academy Award for the two aforementioned films, he was also in the running for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest , Matewan, and Blaze .
A political activist, Wexler directed the documentary Medium Cool , about the 1968 Democratic Party convention. In the field of fiction, but with strong political content, he also directed Latino , about Sandinismo in Nicaragua. He was also one of the main defenders of the regulation by agreement of the maximum working hours of Hollywood workers, after the death in 2014 of the technician Sarah Jones during a filming. He leaves behind a wife, actress and cinematographer Rita Taggart , and three children.