The “In Memoriam” segment at Sunday’s 98th Oscars ceremony was 15 minutes long but still omitted notable film figures like Brigitte Bardot, Harold and Maude‘s Bud Cort and Imax pioneer David Keighley.
A few major names more associated with TV than film, among them Eric Dane, James Van Der Beek and Malcolm-Jamal Warner, were also not included.
There was a logical reason for the extended running time, unfortunately. Three prominent Hollywood figures who died since last year’s Oscars – Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton and Robert Redford – left such a void that the show’s producers opted to give each special tributes.
Reiner was saluted by Billy Crystal and a stage full of other collaborators from Reiner’s films; Rachel McAdams, who starred with Keaton in The Family Stone, offered a personal remembrance of the star, writer and activist; and Barbara Streisand both sang and spoke her memories of Redford. Speaking at a podium, she sang a snippet of the title track from The Way We Were, the 1973 film in which she co-starred with Redford and, with a mournful smile, recalled him always calling her “Babs.”
It may just be something about the cruel tally of losses in 2026 that Robert Duvall, Terence Stamp and other titans flashed by in just a second or two. Towering actresses Claudia Cardinale, Catherine O’Hara and Diane Ladd received mini-tributes within the Keaton tribute. Even so, with all of that running time, there was still no mention of Bardot, Cort, Keighley or other film notables like Tom Noonan, Henry Jaglom and Robert Carradine.
During a decades-long career at Imax, Keighley oversaw post-production on more than 500 films, forging relationships with many top-tier filmmakers. His absence from the segment was noted by his son, Geoff Keighley, a Canadian television host and video game journalist. “So incredibly disappointed and heartbroken,” he wrote to his 2 million followers on X. “I will never forget.”
Some of those absent from the segment were mainly associated with television, though they did cross over a bit into film during their careers. That list would include Dane, Van Der Beek and Warner, as well as Richard Chamberlain, June Lockhart, Terry Bollea (aka wrestler Hulk Hogan) and George Wendt.
“This past year, we lost so many artists, including actresses whose talent and originality widened the world for all of us,” McAdams said in her tribute to Keaton. She cited Cardinale, Ladd and O’Hara by name before focusing in on Keaton.
Calling her “luminous onscreen and indelible in life,” McAdams said, “Believe me when I say there isn’t an actress of my generation who isn’t inspired by and enthralled with her absolute singularity.”
