In the midst of announcing the evening’s winners, the 2018 Oscars telecast took a moment to commemorate the performers, creatives, and other industry professionals who passed away in the last year with its annual “In Memoriam” segment. Typically a late arrival in the evening’s programming, the prepared montage traditionally accompanied by live music is both a highly anticipated and dreaded event, as it serves as a reminder of some of pop culture’s biggest losses in recent memory. Even so, the 2018 Academy Awards’ “In Memoriam” provided just the right kind of remembrances audiences needed.
With the help of the late Tom Petty‘s song “Room at the Top” as performed by Pearl Jam’s Eddie Vedder, the Oscars remembered lost talents as varied as voice actress June Foray (who voiced Rocky the Flying Squirrel from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show), guitarist Chuck Berry, character actor Harry Dean Stanton, director Jonathan Demme, actor John Heard, actor Martin Landau, actress Glenne Headly, James Bond himself Roger Moore, playwright and actor Sam Shepard, Godzilla suit-wearer Haruo Nakajima, cult favorite director Seijun Suzuki, and comedian Don Rickles. Though he was mentioned before 2017’s montage, however, Bill Paxton was a no-show. The segment ended with comedian and filmmaker Jerry Lewis, one of the biggest names in a year filled with notable losses.
