Mark Evanier lists those who were not included in this year’s “in memoriam” video at the Oscars:
Patrick McGoohan was in some pretty good movies and George Carlin was in more than you might think…but neither was included. Nor was Eartha Kitt. Nor was composer Neal Hefti. Nor were Harvey Korman, Earle Hagen, Mel Ferrer, Alexander Courage, John Phillip Law, Irving Brecher, George Furth, Beverly Garland or Guy McElwaine. There were several studio execs and one publicist included but not Bernie Brillstein.
But the startling omission, of course, was Don LaFontaine, who not only became a superstar of movie trailers but also served as the announcer of the Oscars several years.
I noticed LaFontaine’s absence myself and thought that was deeply weird; I honestly did not remember that many of the others Mark mentions had died in ’08. I wonder why people get left out of these things? I imagine there are time constraints that prevent the listing of everybody who passes on during any given year, but what determines whether someone is worthy of inclusion? It can’t be because the missing stars aren’t big enough. Lots of people would know Patrick McGoohan, George Carlin, and Harvey Korman, surely…
Especially when the vignettes are a few seconds long, with multiple shots from multiple films, in the past I know they’ve done either one shot (or still) and the name. This was a bit longer for each person than I can recall. Sad to see some that get left out who touch more than perhaps, a studio exec?
I have mixed feelings on including the behind-the-scenes people like execs, producers, writers, etc. On the one hand, they’re as important to the process of making a great movie as anybody, and it’s only decent to give them some recognition. Especially where the public so rarely knows who they are, or at least what they look like.
That said, I don’t get the thinking behind including a film critic instead of the Movie Trailer Guy or one or two more well-known faces. No disrespect to said critic, but since when are they a part of the movie industry? Roger Ebert notwithstanding, of course (well, he did co-write Beyond the Valley of the Dolls…)!