LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Oscars introduced a somber elegy for Gene Hackman and a joyful tribute to Quincy Jones on Sunday evening.
In a late addition to the ceremony, Morgan Freeman praised the two-time Oscar winner and his two-time co-star Hackman, 5 days after the actor and his spouse had been discovered useless of their New Mexico.
“This week our community lost a giant, and I lost a dear friend, Gene Hackman,” a solemn Freeman stated. “He received two Oscars and more importantly he won the hearts of film lovers all over the world.”
Freeman concluded, “Gene always 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 will be remembered for that and for so much more. Rest in peace, my friend.”
Freeman and Hackman co-starred in 2000’s “Under Suspicion” and within the 1992 Clint Eastwood Western “Unforgiven” — the film that earned Hackman his second Oscar. He received his first for 1971’s ”The French Connection.”
The 95-year-old Hackman, his spouse Betsy Arakawa and their canine had been discovered useless at their house in Santa Fe on Wednesday. The trigger stays underneath investigation.
The tone was very completely different as Oprah Winfrey and Whoopi Goldberg launched a musical tribute to Jones, who died Nov. 3 at age 91.
“When one hears the name Quincy Jones, one’s first thought is musical genius,” Winfrey stated. “But the man, our beloved Q, had an equally profound impact on the world of film, as a composer and producer.”
Goldberg added, “When we talk about black excellence, we’re talking about Quincy.”
They then launched Queen Latifah, who gave a spirited gospel-style rave-up of “Ease on Down the Road,” a track from “The Wiz,” whose soundtrack Jones, a seven-time Oscar nominee, produced. The efficiency included dozens of dancers and backing vocals from the Los Angeles Grasp Chorale.
Jones obtained a de facto tribute at the start of the present when Cynthia Erivo belted out “Home” from “The Wiz” in her opening medley with “Wicked” castmate Ariana Grande.
Winfrey and Goldberg had been castmates in 1985’s “The Color Purple.” Jones was a producer of the Steven Spielberg-directed movie and co-wrote the rating.
“He actually discovered me for ‘The Color Purple,’ which was my first film,” Winfrey stated.
Two weeks after his loss of life, Jones was bestowed his second honorary Oscar at November’s Governors Awards.
The Hackman phase was adopted by the annual “in memoriam” montage of movie figures who died for the reason that final Academy Awards.
It included director David Lynch and actors Maggie Smith, Teri Garr, Joan Plowright, Donald Sutherland, Louis Gossett Jr., Shelley Duvall and James Earl Jones.
Most of them had been highlighted with transient clips amid the musical montage.
“I am a professional actress!” Garr stated in hers, a scene from “Tootsie.”
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