Oscars: Gone But Not Forgotten
Sometime during every Academy Awards telecast, there comes a break from the incessant glamour and self-congratulations for a solemn moment of reflection.
That’s when they air that most morbid yet compelling video montage that punctuates each year’s Oscar telecast and pays homage to Academy members who have died in the past year. This year, Academy notables who have gone on to the Big Craft Services Table in the Sky number 88 (there’s an official list on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences website).
Many of those listed are members of the organization’s more obscure, behind-the-scenes branches – executives, film editors, art directors, musicians, public relations folks and writers. In others words, people most viewers won’t recognize.
But there are always those famous, on-camera figures (actors!) that flash onto the montage screen and elicit an uncomfortable smattering of applause (a final curtain call, if you will) before the film moves on.
This year, recognizable screen figures who have left us include: glam screen divas Elizabeth Taylor and Jane Russell, leading men Cliff Robertson, James Farentino and Ben Gazzara, former child star Jackie Cooper, the great Peter Falk, versatile actress Dana Wynter and wonderful character actors Farley Granger, Harry Morgan and Kenneth Mars.
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