Biography

Around 1938 he adopted the nickname "Weegee", a form of "ouija", based on his ability to get to crime scenes quickly; he had a police radio in his car. He would stamp "Credit to Weegee the Famous" on his pictures.

When Fellig was 11, his family moved from Europe to New York City's Lower East Side. His father was a pushcart merchant, and later became a rabbi. Fellig dropped out of school at 14 to help support his family. He worked odd jobs at the Automat, a Lifesavers factory, and a silent-movie house, where he played violin.

Long-time photojournalist specializing in crime subjects; the lead character Bernzy of The Public Eye (1992) was based on him.

His first book of photographs, "Naked City" (1945), inspired the film The Naked City (1948) and its successor TV series Naked City (1958).

When he was 24, he got a job at Acme News Pictures (now United Press International). He took the late-night photo assignments nobody else wanted. He was the first ordinary citizen in New York City to have a shortwave police radio. He sometimes arrived at murder scenes before the police. He estimated that he shot about 5,000 murder scenes during his career. He sometimes took pictures of the on-lookers at murder scenes instead of the corpse.