2026 Oscars: Every Major In Memoriam Snub In This Year's Ceremony

Death is an inevitable and unavoidable fact of life. After all, every story that has a beginning must have an end. The Academy Awards are, ultimately, a celebration of stories and their storytellers, so it's only fitting that the ceremony honor the artists whose stories have come to a conclusion during the past year. However, death is unpredictable and impossible to control, and some years include more losses than others. Not only that, but some losses are so significant that some ceremony real estate being lended to remembering such legends is practically unavoidable.

All of these elements contribute to the fact that the "In Memoriam" segment of the Academy Awards often overlooks folks during its annual roll call of losses. Fortunately, thanks to the wonders of the digital age, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has been able to make up for this by creating a web page which contains the full list of folks to be memorialized, and this year is no exception. However, this safety net means that a good chunk of notable names can afford to be snubbed from the actual ceremony and broadcast. That has indeed happened again this year, as James Van Der Beek, Eric Dane, Bud Cort, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Hulk Hogan, Joe Don Baker, Peter Greene, Brigitte Bardot, and Julian McMahon were not seen or mentioned during this year's segment, nor were Robert Carradine and June Lockhart. In most cases, this is an unfortunate issue of time and space constraints, yet there are a couple names which the Academy might've rightly felt were controversial enough to leave off.

Of course, all of those people should've been able to fit into the on-air "In Memoriam" segment. It feels especially egregious to leave them off, especially considering how rapidly the names which did make it on flew by. To be fair, a couple of the snubs were probably a calculated decision, namely Hulk Hogan and Brigitte Bardot, both of whom were controversial figures. Seeing them, despite their contributions to cinema history, be included in a generally loving segment would undoubtedly be awkward at best.

Yet in the particular instance of this year, the Academy understandably chose to devote a big chunk of the segment's time to the trio of huge legends that were lost during the last year. The ways in which they honored these people was truly touching, making this year's segment especially emotional. Billy Crystal celebrated the incredible filmography of his friend and "When Harry Met Sally" director Rob Reiner, a speech which climaxed with several of Reiner's collaborators on screen. Rachel McAdams gave a speech honoring her "The Family Stone" co-star Diane Keaton. Closing the segment was Barbara Streisand paying tribute to her "The Way We Were" co-star Robert Redford with a combination speech and musical performance. All of that meant that some edits had to be made, and unfortunately, the folks mentioned above were cut, however arbitrarily. Despite their lack of on-screen honoring, hopefully these artists won't actually be forgotten.