Haskell Wexler, the cinematographer behind One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Days of Heaven passed away earlier today.
Wexler first made waves working as a cinematographer on Elia Kazan's America, America, the 1963 film based on Kazan's book. Even so, he had already won an Oscar for directing documentary short The Living City back in 1953. A few years after working with Kazan, he won an Oscar for his work on Mike Nichols' Who's Afraid of Virginia, the last Academy Award given to Cinematography (Black & White). He won another Oscar for Bound of Glory, the biography of Woody Guthrie, which brought him notice as it was the first feature film to use the Steadicam. In his later years he worked on many documentary features, inlcuding Interviews with My Lai Veterans, Bus Riders' Union, and Bringing King to China.
Wexler died in his sleep in his Santa Monica home. He was 93-years-old.
