Draconically Speaking: Oscar, Oscar, Oscar! 2017 Edition

Greetings, Friends and Fiends!

Ye Olde Dragon here, once more playing Monday Morning Hunchback for the Oscars‘ In Memoriam segment.

OOPS! (Part 1)

Now, before I start in on the oversights -my primary purpose today – I’d be remiss in not mentioning that I cannot help but scratch my head about the gaffe of placing Australian producer Jan Chapman‘s photo instead of that of her friend & long-time collaborator, costume designer Janet Patterson. The gaffe is, is that Ms. Chapman is still alive. Ms. Patterson passed away in October, 2016.
Hoo boy.

OOPS! (Part 2)

Not much more can be added to the insane ending of the evening, with the Best Picture mix-up, resulting in the producers of LA LA LAND (2016) being midway through their acceptance speeches, when it was announced that MOONLIGHT (2016) had actually won, so I’ll just continue onto my particular, peeving peccadillo.

In Memoriam (not!)

I’d like to start by giving credit to Jennifer Aniston, who introduced the segment, on a nice job in mentioning actor Bill Paxton, whose death was revealed only hours before the ceremony.
Now I accept and understand that ‘everybody cannot be included’, but let’s face it, the montage was VERY short, even with some wonderful lines being included, from Gene Wilder‘s, “We are the music-makers. And we are the dreamers of dreams” to the closing moment of Carrie Fisher as General Leia saying, “May the Force be with you.” It ran barely 2 minutes, 45 seconds of video, and it could have been longer, even with the “inspiration” segments before several presentations and the over-long tour bus stunt. As much as I laughed at the gags at Matt Damon’s expense, these also ate up time that could’ve been put to better use.

As I said, I understand that not everyone can be included, but some of these names just downright surprised me! Before I begin, a reminder that these names listed are generally those who passed on BETWEEN Oscar broadcasts (February 28, 2016 – February 26, 2017). David Bowie, Alan Rickman, Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, Screenwriter Daniel Gerson and Cinematographer Douglas Slocomb were included in last year’s segment, so they were NOT snubbed as a number of folks were tweeting.

Also – in doing my research, I came across an “Addendum” on the Oscars’ Website under the 2016 In Memoriam. This basically named almost everyone including those featured IN the video. Of the ones who passed away between January 1, 2016 – February 28, 2016 the following people were listed, even though they were left out of the video:

Pat Harrington, Jr., Richard Libertini, Angus Scrimm, David Margulies and Vanity.

There WERE a few left out of LAST year’s video AND addendum that made it into THIS year‘s presentation. They are:

Re-recording Mixers Richard Portman  & George “Ray” West and Editors Jim Clark & Antony Gibbs.

OK, THESE are the omissions that surprised me:

Larry Drake, Actor: Though he won acclaim as the mentally challenged Benny on TV’s L.A.LAW, on the big screen, he played gangster Robert Durant in the DARKMAN franchise and the title role of DR. GIGGLES (1992).

Earl Hamner, Jr., Screenwriter: Though the majority of his work was on TV, he wrote the stories for both the animated and live-action versions of E.B.White‘s beloved classic CHARLOTTE’S WEB (1975) & (2006).

Burt Kwouk, Actor: He will forever be remembered for his portrayal of Inspector Clouseau’s hapless manservant Cato, under orders to attack at any random time.

Alan Young, Actor: Though he will always be remembered as Wilbur Post, the human foil of the talking horse called MR. ED, he also was the voice of Scrooge McDuck  and made numerous films, including THE TIME MACHINE (1960) and tom thumb (1958), both for George Pal.

David Huddleston, Actor: He was one of those character actors you’ve seen a dozen times, recognizing him in an instant, even if you didn’t know his name. He did however happen to play a title role or two, including SANTA CLAUS: THE MOVIE (1985) and THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998).

Hugh O’Brien, Actor: Though best known as TV’s WYATT EARP, O’Brien appeared in dozens of big screen Westerns, including Don Siegel’s THE SHOOTIST (1976), starring John Wayne.

Herschell Gordon Lewis, Director, Producer: This is the one that will piss off horror fans for sure! How they could leave out The Godfather of Gore is mind-boggling. I mean, in all honesty none of his films were probably Oscar-worthy, but he was one-of-a-kind in movie-making. He was the only one who could lay claim to that G.o.G. title and many current horror-meisters have certainly spoken of his inspiration.

Robert Vaughn, Actor: This is another head scratcher as to why he was left out. I mean, I KNOW that the MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. was primarily a TV show, but there were a few theatrical releases, and he made many major films of which John Sturges‘ THE MAGNIFICENT 7 (1960) is probably the most renowned.

Now there are numerous others, that some people will no doubt wonder why I didn’t list them here, but these were the ones that really surprised me. Also, bear in mind that these are names who were on my  list of 2016 passings of luminaries from the worlds of Science-Fiction, Fantasy, Horror & related. No doubt there are other names, from different genres who may have been left out, but sadly I don’t know of them.

I’ll be posting my complete list as soon as possible.

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