“Singin’ in the Rain” director Stanley Donen, Sondra Locke, the Oscar-nominated actress and former partner of Clint Eastwood, Verne Troyer, character actor Dick Miller and Golden Globe nominee R. Lee Ermey were omitted during the Oscars’ In Memoriam tribute on Sunday.
Carol Channing, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in the 1967 film “Thoroughly Modern Millie” and died in January, was also omitted during the tribute to showbiz people who died in the past year.
Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Los Angeles Philarmonic to a track from 1978’s “Superman: The Movie.”
Donen, whose death was announced Saturday at the age of 94, helped reinvent the big-screen musical, with a series of hits that included “On the Town,” 1954’s “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” 1957’s “The Pajama Game,” 1958’s “Damn Yankees!” and 1957’s “Funny Face,” with Audrey Hepburn and Fred Astaire.
Despite receiving an honorary Oscar in 1998 for “a body of work marked by grace, elegance, wit and visual innovation,” he never received so much as a nomination for any of his films.
Locke earned her Oscar nomination in 1968 for her supporting role in the adaptation of Carson McCullers’ “The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter.” It was her first acting role, which led to roles in films like “Willard” and “The Second Coming of Suzanne.”
Troyer, who was diagnosed with achondroplasia dwarfism, played Mini-Me in the “Austin Powers” films and also starred as Griphook the goblin in “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”
Miller began his acting career in the 1950s in the theater before moving to Los Angeles, kicking off his six-decade career in film with hundreds of credits. He’s best known for his role in director Joe Dante’s “Gremlins” and its sequel, “Gremlins 2: The New Batch.” Miller played Murray Futterman, a World War II veteran haunted by memories of the creatures from the war, who gets his chance to fight back against the creatures when they attack a small Midwestern town during Christmas.
Ermey, a Marine Corps veteran, made his film debut in Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now,” and went on to play authority figures in films like “Mississippi Burning,” “Se7en” and the “Toy Story” films (where he voiced Sarge, leader of the plastic Army men).
A representative for the Academy did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.