Renfro left out of Oscars tribute

I can only think of one film that i've seen with Brad Renfro tbh (Apt Pupil), but i still think he should have been mentioned.

Did they pay tribute to Roy Scheider? It says that Heath Ledger was the last one that was paid tribute to.
 
Considering a number of agents and people the majority of whom would not have been widely known received a mention then of course Brad Renfro should also have.

As for Roy Scheider, the date for those passed away to be mentioned this year ended on the 31st January. Roy died on February 10th, so no doubt he will be mentioned next year.
 
I really don't think it was a snub, I suspect that it was an accident given that Renfro's death came about the same time as, and was completely overshadowed by, Heath Ledger's death.

Unless any of you can think of a malicious reason for doing so, i suspect it was an oversight. He did get a mention during the BAFTAs so you would have thought that the Oscar people would have noticed from them. But given the lack of time to organise the ceremony, I' not surprised something got missed.
 
Usually yes but this year's been different because of the writer's strike, the Oscars has been incredibly rushed and in their haste to make sure they didn't underplay Heath Ledger they could easily have missed a couple of people.

Do you think there is a more sinister reason? Given how Heath Ledger died it would be extremely hypocritical if they left out Renfro because of the manner of his death.

Has anyone from the Oscar organisers said anything about it?
 
Although wasn't Ledger's death due to an accidental overdose on perscription pills? Renfro drug use was recreational. No idea if that was the reason he was left out but those are the only real differences I see between their deaths.

I was watching that section purposefully because I wanted to see Renfro get a mention. He was pretty popular when I was growing up and I was a big fan of The Cure, The Client, Apt Pupil and Sleepers. I have to say I was too a little shocked and disappointed that the young and tradgic death of someone who had a body of decent work was completely overlooked.

I was also a little suprised that they showed such a short snippit of Ledger given the huge press coverage it recieved worldwide. All in all, a poorly done memorial I felt. :(
 
Brad Renfro was an actor that showed such promise in his films.

He blew it, he loved his drugs, he's DEAD.

I feel absolutely no form of empathy towarRAB his careless choices in life. At all.

He deserved to be left out of the Oscars, and that is clearly the reason why he was.

People that consciously choose and then let themselves be consumed and utterly taken over by drugs and alcohol deserve nothing but their life cut short as far as I am concerned. If I offend people by saying that? Quite frankly I'm not interested whether I do or not.
 
The Oscars is supposed to be about showing respect and acknowledgement to actors and other people involved in the movie-making business. The organisers of the Oscars completely failed to do this in their treatment of Brad Renfro.

To leave him out of the in memoriam segment was disrespectful to his fans, frienRAB and not to mention his family. There would also have been a large number of actors in that audience who had personally worked with him over the years and who would no doubt have noticed his absence in the tribute and been upset by it.

His cause of death shouldn't come into assessing whether he "deserves" to be acknowledged or not. All that matters is that he was an actor and he died. River Phoenix also died of a heroin overdose and yet he was acknowledged. It can't be one rule for one and one rule for another.
 
Couldn't agree more. I think it's also important to add he was remembered at the Baftas, which overall was far stronger than the Oscars. They actually showed more than just a fleeting shot of Ledger in BBM too.

Don't know if you got chance to read Sir Ian McKellen's post about Brad but I thought it was quite touching. A man with real class.

http://www.mckellen.com/writings/080116br.htm
 
They left Whoopi Goldberg out of the past presenters reel as well - bit harsh considering she was the first black woman to present and she did it four times.
 
Apparently the Oscar tribute is for Academy members only, Heath Ledger became a member after his nom for his performance in Brokeback Mountain, Renfro however wasn't an academy member.
 
Ah right not sure where I hear that from then.

Thats terrible really. I don't think it should matter how he died, it's still a huge insult to his frienRAB, family and fans (and as others said River Pheonix was still honoured and he died from an overdose.
 
Like they say in that article, it almost makes it worse. They could have argued about him not being an academy member but saying they didn't have time is pretty poor.
 
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