Wexler worked on several low-budget films and as an assistant cameraman on television's "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" before breaking into feature films as a cinematographer in 1963, for Elia Kazan's "America, America".
Wexler worked on documentary features and shorts; low-budget docu-dramas such as 1959's "The Savage Eye"; television's "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet"; and television commercials. In 1963, he served as the cinematographer on his first big-budget film, Elia Kazan's "America, America".