Two-time Academy Award-winning cinematographer Haskell Wexler was
adjudged one of the ten most influential cinematographers in movie
history, according to an International Cinematographers Guild survey of
its membership. He won his Oscars in both black & white and color, for
Wer hat Angst vor Virginia Woolf? (1966)
(1966) and Dieses Land ist mein Land (1976)
(1976). He also shot part of
In der Glut des Südens (1978) (1978), for
which credited director of photography Nestor Almendros -- won a Best Cinematography Oscar that Wexler initially felt
should have been jointly shared by both. Later he admitted he was just finishing the work of Almendros and when Bert Schneider offer him more credit in the Criterion Dvd release of the film, he turned down the offer. In 1993, Wexler was awarded a
Lifetime Achivement award by the cinematographer's guild, the American
Society of Cinematographers. He received five Oscar nominations for his
cinematography, in total, plus one Emmy Award in a career that has
spanned six decades.
In addition to his masterful cinematography, Wexler directed the
seminal late Sixties film
Medium Cool (1969) and has directed
and/or shot many documentaries that display his progressive political
views. He was the subject of a 2004 documentary shot by his son
Mark Wexler,
Tell Them Who You Are (2004).
