In Remembrance: Charles F. Wheeler

     Charles F. Wheeler, the cinematographer who was nominated for an Academy Award for his work on the 1970 war drama Tora! Tora! Tora! has passed away in Orange, California on Thursday, October 28, 2004. He was 88.

     Wheeler served in the Navy during World War II as a combat photographer in the Pacific. He also helped photograph the Japanese surrender on August 14, 1945 on the battleship Missouri.

     In college, Wheeler was a member of the champion University of Southern California polo team. He was often seen at the Riviera and Will Rogers polo fields, playing with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Walt and Roy Disney. The Disneys would later offer Wheeler his first job as an apprentice cameraman.

     Wheeler’s first three films as a full-fledged camera operator all starred his former polo partner Tracy- Inherit The Wind (1960), Judgment At Nuremberg (1961) and It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963). The 1970 co-production of Tora! Tora! Tora! between 20^th Century Fox and Japan’s Toho Studios had Wheeler overseeing the five English-speaking camera crews simultaneously filming major scenes. Additional films shot by Wheeler include the Norman Lear directed comedy Cold Turkey (1971), the contemplative science-fiction film Silent Running (1972) and the blaxploitation films Slaughter’s Big Rip-Off (1973) with Jim Brown and Truck Turner (1974) with Isaac Hayes.

     Wheeler also returned to the Disney studios to serve as cinematographer on such films as The Barefoot Executive (1971), Charley And The Angel (1973), One Little Indian (1973), Freaky Friday (1976), The Cat From Outer Space (1978), The Last Flight Of Noah’s Ark (1980) and Condorman (1981).

     In the 1970s Wheeler moved into made-for-television films, bringing his expertise to such productions as A Tree Grows In Brooklyn (1974), The Red Badge Of Courage (1974) and The Lindbergh Kidnapping Case (1976).

     Wheeler’s last two films were both for director Roger Spottiswoode- 1981’s The Pursuit Of D. B. Cooper and the 1986 Robin Williams-Kurt Russell comedy The Best Of Times.