Haskell Wexler, A.S.C. (born February 6, 1922 in Chicago, Illinois) is an Academy Award-winning American cinematographer, and a film producer and director. Wexler was judged to be one of film history's ten most influential cinematographers in a survey of the members of the International Cinematographers Guild.
Wexler was born in Chicago, Illinois to Simon and Lottie Wexler, who also had Jerrold, Joyce (Isaacs), and Yale. After a year of college at the University of California, Berkeley and a tour in the United States Merchant Marine 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. The film had a stunning look, and Kazan was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award, and Wexler worked steadily in Hollywood thereafter. In 1965, Wexler was cinematographer of Mike Nichols' screen version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . Wexler won an Academy Award for the film's acclaimed black-and-white cinematography in 1967. He won a second Oscar in 1976 for Bound for Glory, a biography of Woody Guthrie (whom Wexler had met during his time in the Merchant Marine). Bound for Glory was one of the earliest feature films to use the steadicam in a famous sequence that also incorporated a crane shot. He was also credited as additional cinematographer on Days of Heaven in 1978 which won a Best Cinematography Oscar for Nestor Almendros.
He has worked on documentaries throughout his career. The 1980 documentary Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang earned an Emmy Award while Interview with My Lai Veterans won an Academy Award. His most recent documentaries are Bus Riders' Union and Who Needs Sleep.
Wexler has also directed movies. Medium Cool, a film written by Wexler and shot in the cinéma vérité style, is studied by film students all over the world for its breakthrough form. Medium Cool was the subject of a BBC documentary, Look Out Haskell It's Real. His film Latino was chosen for the Cannes Film Festival in 1984 and produced by Lucasfilm. The film was written and directed by Wexler. Another directing project was From Wharf Rats to Lords of the Docks, an intimate exploration of the life and times of Harry Bridges, an extraordinary labor leader and social visionary – "a hero or the devil incarnate, it all depends on your point of view".
In 1988, he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Cinematography for the John Sayles film 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. He was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the first cinematographer in 35 years to be so honored, in 1996. His work with Billy Crystal in the 2001 HBO film 61* was nominated for an Emmy.
In 2005, he was the subject of a documentary, Tell Them Who You Are, directed by his son, Mark Wexler.
In 2007, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Independent Documentary Association and the same from the Society of Operating Cameramen.
He is the step-uncle of actresses Daryl Hannah and Page Hannah.
