An in memoriam segment is a memorial to the people, of a particular field or industry, who have recently died. Typically, such memorials air on television, mostly during awards ceremonies. The segments consist of images or video clips of the recently departed individuals, edited together into a montage and usually accompanied by music. These memorials have been featured in the Oscars, the Emmys, the Grammys, the Tonys, the Olivier Awards, the SAG Awards, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, and by the NFL during Super Bowl week. The segment is always followed by a commercial break.
History In 1978, the 50th annual ceremony for the Academy Awards (the Oscars) honored the golden anniversary of the award with a special segment featuring Sammy Davis Jr., singing the Marvin Hamlisch song, “Come Light the Candles,” over a memorial montage. It wasn't until 1994, though, that the In Memoriam segment—paying tribute to the movie stars, film crew members, and Hollywood movie executives who had died in the previous year—became an annual Oscar tribute, beginning with the 66th Academy Awards. Soon after that, the Grammys, the Emmys, and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards followed suit with their own annual memorial segments. By the beginning of the 21st century, the in memoriam tribute had become one of the most popular, and most scrutinized, segments at annual awards ceremonies. A notable editor of In Memoriam segments was Academy Award-winning filmmaker Chuck Workman. An awards show that is known for not featuring an in memoriam segment is the ceremony for the Golden Globe Awards. In lieu of a televised memorial, the Golden Globes honors those who have recently died with a special tribute page on their official website.
Selection process Typically, for an awards show, the decision on who gets honored during the in memoriam segment lies not with the ceremony's producers, but with a committee assigned to the task of making the final decision. The committee would usually start out with a long list, featuring the names of hundreds of recently deceased individuals; from there, the committee would whittle the list down to a feasible number. Footage of all the honorees must collectively fit into a montage running no more than a few minutes in length. For the Grammys, that means honoring roughly 50 people in a span of about three minutes. For the Oscars, it usually entails fitting 40-45 tributes into a three- to four-minute film. The final montage, usually accompanied by what producer Chuck Workman called "some schmaltzy music," is typically finished several days in advance of the ceremony in which it is to be shown. Being included in the Oscars' In Memoriam segment, does not mean the honoree was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS). The final decision of whether or not a person is included depends on that person's level and quality of contributions to the movie industry. According to Bruce Davis, executive director of AMPAS from 1990 to 2011, if it is doubtful that a given actor belongs in the Oscars' memorial tribute, and the actor was better known for work performed on television or Broadway, the committee would typically cut the actor in question from the Oscars’ In Memoriam montage. Sometimes, a deceased person is given an individual tribute in lieu of, or apart from, inclusion in an in memoriam segment, depending on factors like the timing of the individual's death or the magnitude of impact the deceased person had on his or her peers in the same field or industry. In 1996, at the 68th Academy Awards, dancer Savion Glover performed a special dance to the song "Singin' in the Rain", in tribute to Gene Kelly, who had died earlier that year. The In Memoriam segment was presented later on in the ceremony. In 2009, at the 63rd Tony Awards, actress Bebe Neuwirth presented a special tribute to Tony-winning actress Natasha Richardson, who died suddenly earlier that year following a skiing accident. Afterward, Neuwirth mentioned the death of Gerald Schoenfeld, head of Broadway's prestigious Shubert Organization, before introducing the in memoriam segment which paid tribute to the rest of Broadway's stars who had died in the previous year's time. In 2012, singer Whitney Houston died just 36 hours before the 54th Annual Grammy Awards were to take place. In response, Grammy producers decided to make major last-minute changes to the ceremony in order to allow the show's performers and presenters to pay tribute to Houston throughout the show. In 2017, the day before the 89th Academy Awards, movie actor Bill Paxton died. He was not officially included in the Oscars' In Memoriam segment the next day, since the montage was completed before his death. However, actress Jennifer Aniston, during her presentation of the memorial montage, tearfully paid verbal tribute to Paxton before it played.
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