Brigitte Bardot, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, James Van Der Beek and Eric Dane were among the names missing from the In Memoriam segment at the 98th Academy Awards on Monday.
The annual tribute, presented during the ceremony at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, honoured film industry figures who died over the past year. Prior to the broadcast, Oscars producer Katy Mullan had said that the segment would be extended this year due to the significant number of losses in Hollywood.
“It’s been an unimaginably hard year where we’ve lost a lot of icons and titans of the film industry. So yes, we are going to expand the In Memoriam because it feels so important that we do a tribute that is worthy of the people that we’ve lost this year,” Mullan told The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the ceremony.
Despite the expanded segment, several omissions were quickly noticed by eagle-eyed viewers on social media. French cinema icon Bardot did not appear in the televised montage, although her name was included in the longer memorial list published on the website of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences after the ceremony.
The Academy typically releases a more comprehensive list online to recognise additional members of the film community who died during the year.
Actors Warner, Van Der Beek and Dane were also absent from the broadcast tribute. However, all three performers are better associated with television than with the film industry, which might explain their exclusion from the telecast.
Other actors who did not appear in the telecast included Bud Cort, Tom Noonan and Julian McMahon, though their names were also included in the Academy’s extended memorial list online.
The televised segment featured tributes to several prominent Hollywood figures, including Robert Redford, Robert Duvall, Catherine O’Hara and Diane Keaton.
A significant portion of the tribute was dedicated to filmmaker Rob Reiner and his wife, producer Michele Reiner, who died in December. Actor Billy Crystal introduced the segment, remembering his longtime friend and celebrating his contributions to cinema.
