Haskell Wexler

Haskell Wexler (February 6, 1922 – December 27, 2015) was an American cinematographer, director, and documentary filmmaker. He earned two Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), the last such honor for a black-and-white film, and Bound for Glory (1976). Wexler pioneered naturalistic, handheld camera techniques in features like In the Heat of the Night (1967) and The Conversation (1974), while directing the hybrid fiction-documentary Medium Cool (1969), shot amid real 1968 Chicago unrest. His documentaries, including The Bus (1965) on civil rights marches and Brazil: A Report on Torture (1971), reflected his lifelong political activism on labor rights, anti-war causes, and industry safety, often clashing with studio norms—he was dismissed from One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) over creative disputes. Ranked among the most influential cinematographers by the International Cinematographers Guild, Wexler's work emphasized social realism and technical innovation over commercial conformity.

Haskell Wexler was born on February 6, 1922, in Chicago, Illinois, to Simon "Sy" and Lottie Wexler, part of a prosperous Jewish family whose roots traced to Russian and Polish immigrants. His father established Allied Radio Corporation in 1928 as a mail-order electronics retailer, building substantial wealth through catalog sales of radios and components even amid the economic hardships of the Great Depression. The family also had interests in other ventures, including the Milwaukee Chair Company, which supplied furniture to institutions like the U.S. Supreme Court.

Raised in Chicago's Lincoln Park neighborhood at 2340 North Lincoln Park West, Wexler attended the progressive Francis Parker School, where he co-captained the football team and helped produce the student publication Anti-Everything. The household emphasized social responsibility, shaped by his father's adherence to socialist principles—he supported Eugene V. Debs and opposed U.S. entry into World War I while backing Allied efforts in World War II—and connections to first-generation Jewish immigrants focused on communal ethics. Siblings included brothers Jerrold and Yale, as well as sister Joyce.

Wexler's early environment fostered exposure to labor dynamics through the family businesses, where as a teenager he advocated for workers seeking pay raises, reflecting initial stirrings of concern for economic inequities in an otherwise privileged urban Jewish setting. At age 12, during a family vacation to Italy, he used a wind-up 16mm camera to film his first footage, including scenes of fascist youth groups, indicating nascent interests in visual documentation and social observation. Access to such equipment at home, courtesy of the family's resources, provided practical outlets for these inclinations amid Chicago's intellectual and industrial milieu.