Out Of The In Memoriam: An Academy Awards Article
The 86th Academy Awards are coming up in March, and this ceremony will mark the 20th time they’ve done an In Memoriam montage as a regular segment on the telecast. There had been previous salutes to departed film personalities, from Sammy Davis Jr. and Marvin Hamlisch’s 1978 performance of a song called “Come Light The Candles” to a 1981 performance of “Hooray For Hollywood” by Lucie Arnaz that started out with lyrics paying tribute to talents like Mae West and Alfred Hitchcock, but the In Memoriam as a regular segment didn’t start until the 66th Academy Awards, which was the first ceremony I watched as a young movie buff. As set to Michael Gore’s theme from “Terms Of Endearment”, tribute was paid to deceased talents from Don Ameche to Brandon Lee. Over the years, as more talents have passed on, the In Memoriam has varied in size, but there’s always controversy over who gets included and who gets left out. Many of those names that have been excluded were TV