Wexler was cinematographer of Mike Nichols' screen version of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), for which he won the last Academy Award for Best Cinematography (Black & White) handed out. Wexler would later work with Lucas as a consultant for American Graffiti (1973). Wexler pulled a few strings to help Lucas get admitted to the USC Film School. George Lucas, then 20, met Wexler who shared his hobby of auto racing. Wexler worked steadily in Hollywood thereafter. Kazan was nominated for a Best Director Academy Award. That same year he served as the cinematographer on his first big-budget film, Elia Kazan's America America. In 1963 Wexler self-funded, produced and photographed the documentary The Bus in which a group of Freedom Riders are followed as they make their way from San Francisco to Washington D.C. Other notable documentaries shot and co-directed (with Landau) by Wexler included Brazil: A Report on Torture and The CIA Case Officer and The Sixth Sun: A Mayan Uprising in Chiapas. He made ten documentary films with director Saul Landau, including Paul Jacobs and the Nuclear Gang, which aired on PBS and won an Emmy Award and a George Polk Award. 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 TV commercials (he would later found Wexler-Hall, a television commercial production company, with Conrad Hall). Wexler briefly made industrial films in Chicago, then in 1947 became an assistant cameraman. He made a number of documentaries, including The Living City, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He worked his way up to more technical positions after beginning as an assistant cameraman on various projects. He later took freelance jobs as a cameraman, joining the International Photographers Guild in 1947. When his studio lost too much money, it was eventually shut down, but the business served as an unofficial film school for Wexler. He began by shooting industrial films at Midwest factories. He decided he wanted to become a filmmaker, although he had no experience, and his father helped him set up a small studio in Des Plaines, Illinois. He returned to Chicago after his discharge in 1946 and began working in the stockroom at his father's company, Allied Radio. After the war, Wexler received the Silver Star and was promoted to the rank of second officer. He spent 10 days on a lifeboat before being rescued. In November 1942, his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine and sank off the coast of South Africa. While in the Merchant Marine, Wexler advocated for the desegregation of seamen. He became friends with fellow sailor Woody Guthrie, who later gained fame as a folk singer. He attended the progressive Francis Parker School, where he was best friends with Barney Rosset.Īfter a year of college at the University of California, Berkeley, he volunteered as a seaman in the Merchant Marine in 1941, as the U.S. His parents were Simon and Lottie Wexler, whose children included Jerrold, Joyce (Isaacs) and Yale. Wexler was born to a Jewish family in Chicago in 1922. In his obituary in The New York Times, Wexler is described as being "renowned as one of the most inventive cinematographers in Hollywood." Early life and education He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography twice, in 19, out of five nominations. 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. Haskell Wexler, ASC (Febru– December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, film producer, and director.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |