This year\u2019s Academy Awards featured an extended in memoriam section to honour the considerable number of Hollywood legends who have died over the past year.<\/p>\n
Diane Keaton<\/a>, Robert Redford<\/a> and Rob Reiner<\/a> were paid tribute to in standalone speeches, while Claudia Cardinale and Catherine O\u2019Hara also had extended moments.<\/p>\n Yet a number of actors were not included, most prominent amongst them the icon of French cinema Brigitte Bardot, who died<\/a> in December, aged 91.<\/p>\n The star of films including And God Created Woman, The Truth, A Very Private Affair and Contempt, the actor and singer later turned her back on the film industry and embraced the causes of animal rights activism and far-right politics.<\/p>\n It was on account of the latter of these that Bardot\u2019s inclusion at the C\u00e9sar awards\u2019 tribute in February was greeted with boos and the shout of \u201cracist\u201d<\/a>. Some have speculated this might be why the Oscars organisers chose to leave her out.<\/p>\n No such reasoning can apply however to either the Indian actor Dharmendra<\/a>, who died last year after a 65-year career in more than 300 Hindi films, or to Bud Cort<\/a>, best known for his starring role in 1971\u2019s Harold and Maude.<\/p>\n Likewise, a backlash could have been widely anticipated for a failure to include two TV pinups who dabbled in film and died young: James Van Der Beek<\/a>, whose movies include Varsity Blues and The Rules of Attraction, and Eric Dane<\/a>, who was featured in X-Men films.<\/p>\n Also omitted, potentially on account of being most famously a small-screen star, was the British actor Prunella Scales<\/a>, who featured in acclaimed films including The Boys from Brazil, The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne, A Chorus of Disapproval, Howards End and An Awfully Big Adventure.<\/p>\n Industry names who were beamed on to the screen during the extended in memoriam section included Robert Duvall<\/a>, Val Kilmer<\/a>, Diane Ladd<\/a>, Robert Carradine<\/a>, James Foley<\/a>, Graham Greene<\/a>, Ken Jacobs<\/a> and Michael Madsen<\/a>.<\/p>\n Meanwhile UK talent recognised included Terence Stamp<\/a>, Tom Stoppard<\/a> and Pauline Collins<\/a>, and European cinema icons Udo Kier<\/a>, Claudia Cardinale<\/a> and B\u00e9la Tarr<\/a> were also mentioned.<\/p>\n Barbra Streisand took to the stage<\/a> to remember her friend and co-star Robert Redford, while Rachel McAdams did the same for Diane Keaton<\/a> and Catherine O\u2019Hara.<\/p>\n