The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences paid tribute to those Hollywood has lost over the past year with an “In Memoriam” segment introduced by an emotional John Travolta, but viewers at home criticized the omission of actors Anne Heche, Tom Sizemore, Paul Sorvino, Melinda Dillon, and other stars who died before Sunday’s 95th Oscars. The segment, which featured a slideshow and Lenny Kravitz performing his 2004 song “Calling All Angels,” honored such names as Olivia Newton-John, Angela Lansbury, Ray Liotta, Raquel Welch, Nichelle Nichols, Robbie Coltrane, and James Caan, but left others to an In Memoriam gallery on the Academy website.
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Among the names omitted from Sunday’s live broadcast are Heche, who died in a car crash in August; Goodfellas and Nixon actor Paul Sorvino, who died last summer aged 83; Charlbi Dean, who starred in the Best Picture-nominated Triangle of Sadness before her death from bacterial sepsis at age 32; Close Encounters of the Third Kind and A Christmas Story actress Melinda Dillon, who died earlier this year at age 83; and Saving Private Ryan star Tom Sizemore, who died at age 61 earlier this month after suffering a brain aneurysm.
“No Anne Heche in the In Memoriam montage??? Shame on them!!,” one viewer tweeted of Heche’s omission. Wrote another user about Dean: “She was the lead in a best picture this year and you dont add her to the in memoriam?!?!” Another Twitter user called out the omission of Sorvino and actor Leslie Jordan, who died in October at age 67 after he suffered a medical emergency before crashing his vehicle.
The In Memoriam section on the Academy website does honor those lost who were not included in the televised broadcast segment, including Heche, Dean, Dillon, Jordan, Sorvino, and Sizemore. When announcing Kravitz for this year’s ceremony, the Academy said that “more than 200 filmmakers, artists and executives” would be honored on the website’s photo gallery.
