Oscars leave many feeling left out

Sunday’s Oscars, like past Oscars, had its share of memorable moments.

From the touching tribute to the late director John Hughes, to Kathryn Bigelow being the first woman to win Best Director for “The Hurt Locker,” the 2010 awards won’t be forgotten.

Inevitably, the telecast also had moments which didn’t please everyone.  One such instance occurred when Ben Stiller presented the Oscar for Makeup dressed as a Na’vi from “Avatar,” which the film’s director, James Cameron, clearly had a less than flattering reaction to.

The one which really stuck out for me, though, was when the   during the past year, or rather the past year since the previous Oscars as a few of the artists listed passed on earlier this year.

This tribute raised my eyebrows because there were a few surprising omissions.  Two such omissions, which several news wires have already taken the Oscars to task for not mentioning, were Bea Arthur and Farrah Fawcett.  Although they were both better known for their TV and stage work, both women  had a nice number of feature films under their belts. Fawcett, for instance, had memorable appearances in films such as “Logan’s Run,” (1976) “The Apostle” (1997) and “Cannonball Run” (1981), which co-starred Dom DeLuise, who also passed away this year and was mentioned in the memoriam.  This, along with how much they were both loved by audiences over multiple years, would warrant some
sort of tribute from such a prestigious institution as the Acadamey, I would think.

However, Arthur and Fawcett weren’t the only artists who passed away during the last
12 months and went overlooked by the Academy.  Among the others were actor Ricardo Montalban, who was had a memorable film career in the 1940s and ’50s before landing his most famous roles as Mr. Rourke on TV’s “Fantasy Island” and as Khan in “Star Trek.”

Another startling omission was Don LaFontaine.  You might not recognize his name, but his distinguishable voice narrated countless movie trailers (among other things, including the Oscars) throughout the years.  Not long ago, he appeared as himself on a commercial for Geico being introduced as “the announcer guy from the movies.” I would think this would warrant praise from the filmmaking community.

Other late, great artists who didn’t get mentioned were George Carlin, probably the most influential comedian of his generation, and Forrest J. Ackerman, publisher of “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine, which was an inspiration to such filmmaking legends as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. Both Carlin and Ackerman made film appearances over the years as well.

This isn’t the first year the Acadamey has committed such oversights.  Montalban’s fellow Star Trek alumnus DeForest Kelley, who played Dr. McCoy on the series, wasn’t mentioned when he died in 1999, despite the fact that, like Montalban, he had extensive film credits prior to boarding the Enterprise.

Not surprisingly, fans of Fawcett, including her long-time beau Ryan O’Neal, have already taken the Academy to task for failing to mention her. Bruce Davis, the executive director for the Academy, has replied with this (quoted from cinematical.com):
“It is the single most troubling element of the Oscar show every year.  Because more people die each year than can possibly be included in that segment.”

Perhaps mentioning each and every great artist who has passed on during the past year is more difficult than it seems, so oversights may be inevitable.  In a case such as Fawcett’s, though, I would think she would be as memorable as Michael Jackson, who was mentioned in the Oscar Memoriam and who died the same day as Fawcett.

Perhaps, the Academy should start sending out memos asking the public to remind them of the great artists who have passed on so that such oversights would be minimized.