Haskell Wexler, one of the greatest cinematographers in Hollywood history, has died. The two-time Oscar winner was 93.
Wexler’s death was announced on his website. According to Variert, his son, Jeff Wexler, wrote on Facebook that his father died Sunday “peacefully in his sleep.”
Wexler earned five Oscar nominations during his storied career. He won the last Best Cinematography, Black and White Oscar for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? in 1967 and later won for 1976’s Bound for Glory, one of his many films with director Hal Ashby. He also earned nominations for One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, 1987’s Matewan and 1989’s Blaze. In 2001, he was nominated for an Emmy for his work on 61*.
He also won the American Society of Cinematographers’ Lifetime Achievement award in 1993.
Outside of his Hollywood career, he was a longtime liberal activist. He spent much of his time making documentaries and his own films about the disenfranchised and politics. As The Los Angeles Times notes, even at 89, he was still filming, visiting Occupy L.A. in 2011.
As a director, Wexler made the politically charged and acclaimed Medium Cool in 1969 and Latino in 1989. His 2007 film, From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, was centered on unionization.
Wexler’s career began in the mid’1950s and included collaborations with Ashby (Coming Home), Norman Jewison (The Thomas Crown Affair, In The Heat of the Night), Francis Ford Coppola (The Conversation) and Terrence Malick (Days of Heaven). He also photographed performance films with Bruce Springsteen, Richard Pryor and The Rolling Stones.
Wexler is survived by his sons, daughter Kathy and third wife Rita. He was the first cinematographer to be awarded a Hollywood Walk of Fame star and was the subject of his son Mark Wexler’s film, Tell Them Who You Are.