Oscars 2017: In Memoriam, Who Was Remembered, Who Was Forgotten

Last night’s annual ‘In Memoriam‘ presentation at the Oscars was, as usual, a somber moment honoring actors and other Hollywood figures that passed away at some point in the previous year. After a tearful introduction from Jennifer Anniston, who remembered fellow actor Bill Paxton, Sara Bareilles gave a heartfelt performance of “Both Sides Now” by Joni Mitchell.

During Bareilles’ performance, video footage of Gene Wilder, Carrie Fisher, Anton Yelchin, John Hurt, and Mary Tyler Moore played in the background. Among some of the other actors honored in the three and a half minute presentation were Patty Duke, Nancy Reagan, George Kennedy, and Debbie Reynolds.

While the most recognizable figures were actors, last night’s ‘In Memoriam’ also included prolific Hollywood figures with countless Oscar nominations and wins between them. Of those remembered were Curtis Hanson, director of L.A. Confidential, Michael Cimino, writer, director, and producer of The Deer Hunter, and Vilmos Zsigmond, who won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Paxton, who passed away the day before the show, was mentioned first by Anniston because he was not featured in the video.

But while time was not on their side for Paxton’s death, the Academy had no excuse for their exclusion of actors Garry Shandling, Florence Henderson and Doris Roberts, as some viewers cried foul.

 

 

 

Although Shandling, Henderson, and Roberts were all better known for their careers on television, all three appeared in countless movies during their lifetimes.

The Academy also accidentally used a picture of living Australian producer Jan Chapman in place of her friend, Janet Patterson, an Australian costume and production designer who died in October of 2016.