The 98th Academy Awards paid tribute to some of the film industry luminaries who died last year in an extended In Memoriam segment on Sunday.
Billy Crystal praised the late director Rob Reiner and his wife, Michele Singer Reiner, who were murdered on December 14. Crystal analyzed key entries in Reiner’s directorial filmography, including “Stand by Me,” “The Princess Bride” and “When Harry Met Sally.”
Crystal, who co-starred in “When Harry Met Sally” alongside Meg Ryan, told the audience at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood: “My friend Rob’s movies will last a lifetime, because they are about what makes us laugh and cry, and what we aspire to be.”
He was then joined on stage by Ryan and a host of other performers who appeared in Reiner’s films, including “This Is Spinal Tap” co-writers and stars Christopher Guest and Michael McKean.
Rachel McAdams took to the stage to pay tribute to Oscar-winning screen legend Diane Keaton, who died on October 11 at age 79. (The two co-starred in “The Family Stone”). McAdams described Keaton as an “icon” and “an endless legend.”
“Believe me when I say that there is not an actress of my generation who has not been inspired and captivated by her absolute uniqueness,” McAdams said.
Keaton won the best actress Oscar for her lead role in Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall.” She was nominated three more times for her roles in “Reds,” “Marvin’s Room” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”
McAdams treated the audience to a Girl Scout song that she said Keaton used to sing on movie sets:
Make new friends, but keep the old ones.
One is silver and the other is gold.
A circle is round, it has no end.
Until then I will be your friend.
Then, after an In Memoriam video package, Barbra Streisand spoke at length about Robert Redford, who died on September 16 at age 89.
Streisand praised Redford’s championing of press freedom, fostering rising artistic voices at his Sundance Institute in Utah, and protecting the natural environment.
“I called him an intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail and won the Academy Award for best director,” Streisand said. “Bob had a real backbone on and off screen.”
Redford won the best director Oscar for the family melodrama “Ordinary People” (1980), the first of his nine stints behind the camera. He also received an Honorary Academy Award in 2002.
Streisand capped her tribute by singing an excerpt from her song “The Way We Were,” the theme to the seminal 1973 romantic drama starring her and Redford.
“I miss him now more than ever, even though he loved to make fun of me,” Streisand said.
