During the Sunday night’s 90th Academy Awards ceremony’s “In Memoriam” montage paying tribute to industry people who died last year, one of the most prominent faces missing was the popular Batman actor Adam West.
Renowned for playing Batman on the 1960s Batman TV series, and in the 1966 movie, West passed away in June 2017 at the age of 88.
The Sunday night segment was introduced by Jennifer Garner, and it featured 51 stars such as Jerry Lewis, George A. Romero, Roger Moore, Sam Shepard, June Foray and Martin Landau.
However, West wasn’t the only notable omission as Powers Boothe, Rose Marie, Miguel Ferrer, Della Reese, John Hillerman, Tobe Hooper, Robert Guillaume and David Ogden Stiers (who died on Saturday) were also not featured as well as (Bill Paxton who had died a day before the 2017 ceremony), but Bill got a mention from Garner.
Every year, the Oscars tribute is followed by a tweet storm and various petitions highlighting major omissions. However, as is the case with almost every other element of Academy Awards event, whether it is nominations, ticket distribution, voting or the “In Memoriam” reel, everything follows a process, with a committee from Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tasked with trimming down a list of about 300 submissions down to a more manageable 40-50 people.
Those who eventually get featured are the names, faces, and as was in the case of June Foray, voices which are known to viewers, and that’s why those in production are rarely included. In the same vein, actors like West who are more known for their work on television instead of movies, are also generally overlooked.
However, West is leading the “In Memoriam” gallery on the website of Oscars. Subsequent to his demise in June, there was a ceremony held in which the legendary Bat-Signal was projected on the Los Angeles City Hall, and tributes were paid by DC Comics and Family Guy.
