This year’s Oscars tribute to the entertainment figures who died in the past year made a glaring error, neglecting to include Michelle Trachtenberg, though her premature death last week continues to shock and devastate.
The 39-year-old former child actor, who broke out in the 1996 family film, Harriet The Spy and endured in her Gossip Girl run as villain Georgina Sparks, was found dead last Wednesday morning in her luxury apartment near Columbus Circle. She was 39.
Trachtenberg’s mother found her just hours before Santa Fe authorities found the bodies of Gene Hackman, his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, and one of their dogs, at their home.
Morgan Freeman opened the memorial segment by paying tribute to his Unforgiven and Under Suspicion co-star. He was 95.
“This week, our community lost a giant. And I lost a dear friend: Gene Hackman,” said Freeman.
“Like everyone who’s ever shared a scene with him, I learned he was a generous performer and a man whose gifts elevated everyone’s work. He received two Oscars. But more importantly, he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.
"Gene only said, ‘I don’t think about legacy. I just hope people remember me as someone who tried to do good work. So I think I speak for us all when I say, Gene, you’ll be remembered for that, and for so much more. Rest in peace, my friend.”
The In Memoriam segment also neglected to name actresses Shannen Doherty, Olivia Hussey and Linda Lavin, as well as Oscar-winning “Super Size Me” director Morgan Spurlock.
Broadway and screen titan James Earl Jones as well as David Lynch were spotlit in the segment, along with Dame Maggie Smith, Gena Rowlands, Kris Kristofferson, Charles Shyer, Shelley Duvall and Donald Sutherland. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
