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| Haskell Wexler and Seamus McGarvey at Edinburgh International Film Festival in June. Photo: Lloyd Smith, © EIFF, Edinburgh International Film Festival All Rights Reserved |
His death was confirmed by a post on his blog. The Chicago born filmmaker - who took part in an In Person event with fellow cinematographer Seamus McGarvey at Edinburgh Film Festival this June - also wrote and directed films including Who Needs Sleep? and Medium Cool. He won Oscars for Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? and Hal Ashby's Woody Guthrie biopic Bound For Glory and contributed to Terrence Malick's Days Of Heaven, for which Nestor Almendros was awarded the cinematography Oscar.
Other films in his long career, included In The Heat Of The Night and The Thomas Crown Affair (1961).
Described on his blog as "a passionate liberal", Wexler frequently invested in films he felt were socially important and was also a social documentarian himself, winning an Oscar for his short film Interviews With My Lai Veterans.
On his website, his son Jeff wrote: "It is with great sadness that I have to report that my father, Haskell Wexler, has died. Pop died peacefully in his sleep, Sunday, December 27th, 2015. Accepting the Academy Award in 1967, Pop said: 'I hope we can use our art for peace and for love'. An amazing life has ended but his lifelong commitment to fight the good fight, for peace, for all humanity, will carry on."
