For the first time since Sunday’s Oscars, Academy Awards executive director Bruce Davis admitted Tuesday that Farrah Fawcett wasn’t included in the Academy Awards’ In Memoriam segment because the actress was better known as a TV star.
Davis said the academy committee debated including both Fawcett, who died of cancer last June, and Gene Barry, a longtime TV actor who passed away in December at age 90, in the memorial segment but ultimately omitted both.
Davis — who has organized the Oscars “In Memoriam” tribute — and his colleagues thought that while the two stars appeared in movies over the course of their career, they were best known for their “remarkable television work” and would be more appropriately honored by the television academy at the Emmys.
In the meantime, Fawcett’s de facto stepdaughter Tatum O’Neal — whose Oscar-winning father Ryan was Farrah’s longtime on-again, off-again flame — issued a statement saying her family is “deeply saddened” over the omission.
“On behalf of myself, my father Ryan O’Neal and my entire family, we are deeply saddened that a truly beautiful and talented actress Farrah Fawcett was not included in the memorial montage during the 82ND Academy Awards,” the statement said. “We are bereft with this exclusion of such an international icon who inspired so many for so many reasons. Beautiful, talented Farrah will never be forgotten by her family and amazing fans.”
When asked why Michael Jackson was included when actors were left out, Davis explained that the music legend had appeared in a popular theatrical film recently, thanks to the success of the concert documentary This Is It. “Think of all the blogging we would have gotten if we had left him out!” he retorted.