At the Oscars on Sunday, the Academy incited anger and disappointment among family, friends, and fans when it failed to honour the legacy of Fawcett’s work.

Last year, after a long battle with rectal cancer, the actress Farrah Fawcett died at the age of sixty-two. Fawcett was probably best known for her role as Jill Munroe in the iconic seventies television series, ‘Charlie’s Angels’. Her final screening was the highly acclaimed and very moving, ‘Farrah’s Story’, an hour long film released just weeks before she died which documented her battle with cancer and allowed people a very realistic insight into cancer treatment.

Several other actors died last year, notably Natasha Richardson, Patrick Swayze, David Carradine, Jean Simmons and Brittany Murphy. At the Oscars’ ceremony on Sunday night, during the ritual ‘in memoriam’ tribute that has been part of the ceremony since 1993, the work of these actors was recognized by including them. For Farrah Fawcett there was no mention, causing distress to her family who said in a statement that they felt “bereft with this exclusion of such an international icon who inspired so many for so many reasons”. Her long term partner – the actor Ryan O’Neal – spoke of how Farrah had been a member of the academy for over forty years! On the social networking site, Twitter, Jane Fonda headed a flood of people criticising the decision not to include Fawcett, and expressing the letdown they felt at her exclusion.
The man who has been responsible for the ‘in memoriam’ section since its inauguration began, is Bruce Davis. Following all the critical comments he said, “There’s nothing you can say to people, particularly to family members, within a day or two of the show that helps at all. They tend to be surprised and hurt, and we understand that and we’re sorry for it.”  However he admitted that the decision to exclude Fawcett had been made deliberately after giving it some consideration. He said that the Academy had attempted to recognize as many as possible of the unusually high number of distinguished screenwriters who had died this year. He explained that given Fawcett was mostly known for her television work, it felt more appropriate for her to be honoured at the Emmy Awards.  While on one level this might be understandable, its credibility as an authentic justification is called into question by the inclusion of Michael Jackson, who is best known for his work in the arena of popular music. When challenged about this decision Davis declared that Jackson had recently appeared in a popular theatrical film – thought to be an allusion to ‘This Is It’. However, his reasoning was somewhat marred by his follow-up comment, “Think of all the blogging we would have gotten if we had left him out.”
When Farrah died in June last year her death – along with other notable figures from the industry – was overshadowed by coverage of Michael Jackson’s death. It is ironic then that her contribution to the industry was - in effect - likewise eclipsed by the Academy’s omission. In her final work, she gave an amazing and uncompromising view of her personal human experience. And this surely deserves to be honoured at least every bit as much as Jackson’s final film.