Oscar winning cameraman Haskell Wexler dies at 93

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Haskell Wexler, one of Hollywood's most famous and honored cinematographers and one whose innovative approach helped him win Oscars for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and the Woody Guthrie biopic "Bound for Glory," died Sunday.

A liberal activist, Wexler photographed some of the most socially relevant and influential films of the 1960s and 1970s, including the Jane Fonda-Jon Voight anti-war classic, "Coming Home," the Sidney Poitier-Rod Steiger racial drama "In the Heat of the Night" and the Oscar-winning adaptation of Ken Kesey's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest."

The real-life unrest was filmed on the spot for the movie, and its "cinema verite" approach was closely studied by aspiring filmmakers.

For "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf," the last film to receive an Oscar for best black and white cinematography, he used hand-held cameras to capture the tension of the tirades between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton.

For one of his documentaries, 2006's "Who Needs Sleep?" Wexler turned his attention to the film industry itself, decrying the long hours endured by Hollywood set workers.

Wexler's other documentaries include: The Bus, about the Freedom Riders who risked their lives to integrate the South in the 1960s; Latino, which examined American policy in Nicaragua; Interviews with My Lai Veterans, which shined a light on survivors of U.S. brutality in Vietnam; and Brazil:

Publisher Barney Rosset, who helped bring down censorship laws by publishing unexpurgated editions of D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer."

At age 89, he received an Emmy nomination as the cameraman for Billy Crystal's "61(asterisk)," the HBO film about Roger Maris' record-setting home run season.