One other interesting Oscar thought…
A job I'm glad I don't have is assembling the annual montage of folks who've died since the last Academy Awards. This year, it'll include Christopher Reeve, Rodney Dangerfield, Janet Leigh, Tony Randall, Alan King, Paul Winfield, Cy Coleman, Arthur Miller, Peter Ustinov and many others…but there are some dicey decisions to be made. Neither Johnny Carson nor Ray Charles did much in movies but Carson was a beloved Oscar host, and much of tonight will be about Mr. Charles, anyway. So do they get into the montage? (I'm guessing they'll be remembered in separate sections.) Do you include Russ Meyer, who never made Oscar-worthy material but was one of the most successful moviemakers of all time from a financial sense? (I'm guessing they won't.) And do you close with Marlon Brando, who was probably the most acclaimed film actor of all time…or Ronald Reagan, who wasn't a great actor but did make it to the presidency?