This year’s Academy Awards featured an extended in memoriam section to honour the considerable number of Hollywood legends who have died over the past year.
Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were paid tribute to in standalone speeches, while Claudia Cardinale and Catherine O’Hara also had extended moments.
Yet a number of actors were not included, most prominent amongst them the icon of French cinema Brigitte Bardot, who died in December, aged 91.
The star of films including And God Created Woman, The Truth, A Very Private Affair and Contempt, the actor and singer later turned her back on the film industry and embraced the causes of animal rights activism and far-right politics.
It was on account of the latter of these that Bardot’s inclusion at the César awards’ tribute in February was greeted with boos and the shout of “racist”. Some have speculated this might be why the Oscars organisers chose to leave her out.
No such reasoning can apply however to either the Indian actor Dharmendra, who died last year after a 65-year career in more than 300 Hindi films, or to Bud Cort, best known for his starring role in 1971’s Harold and Maude.
Likewise, a backlash could have been widely anticipated for a failure to include two TV pinups who dabbled in film and died young: James Van Der Beek, whose movies include Varsity Blues and The Rules of Attraction, and Eric Dane, who was featured in X-Men films.
Also omitted, potentially on account of being most famously a small-screen star, was the British actor Prunella Scales, who featured in acclaimed films including The Boys from Brazil, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, A Chorus of Disapproval, Howards End and An Awfully Big Adventure.
Industry names who were beamed on to the screen during the extended in memoriam section included Robert Duvall, Val Kilmer, Diane Ladd, Robert Carradine, James Foley, Graham Greene, Ken Jacobs and Michael Madsen.
Meanwhile UK talent recognised included Terence Stamp, Tom Stoppard and Pauline Collins, and European cinema icons Udo Kier, Claudia Cardinale and Béla Tarr were also mentioned.
Barbra Streisand took to the stage to remember her friend and co-star Robert Redford, while Rachel McAdams did the same for Diane Keaton and Catherine O’Hara.
Meanwhile Billy Crystal contributed a lengthy tribute to the director Rob Reiner, before being joined by the stars of some of his best-loved films.