Oscars’ In Memoriam Segment Honors Aleksei Navalny, Among Film Greats

The in memoriam segment at the Academy Awards opened not with a Hollywood star, but with a clip of Aleksei A. Navalny from “Navalny,” the Oscar-winning 2022 documentary about the Russian opposition leader who died last month in a Russian prison.

“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing,” read a quote of Navalny’s on the screen.

Taking a moment to recognize those in the film industry who have died since the previous Oscars ceremony, the telecast also paid tribute to stars such as Harry Belafonte, the barrier-breaking performer and activist, and Chita Rivera, the Broadway star who also appeared in films, as well as filmmakers such as Norman Jewison, the lauded director behind “In the Heat of the Night,” “Fiddler on the Roof” and “Moonstruck.”

To accompany the tributes, the superstar tenor Andrea Bocelli sang “Time to Say Goodbye” — with a new orchestration by Hans Zimmer — alongside his son, Matteo Bocelli.

Here are some of figures the Academy honored:

• Alan Arkin, the acclaimed actor who won an Oscar for his role in “Little Miss Sunshine”

• Andre Braugher, a film, TV and theater actor who had roles in Spike Lee and Edward Zwick films

• Michael Gambon, the acclaimed Irish-born actor who played Albus Dumbledore in the “Harry Potter” movies

• William Friedkin, director of the box office hits “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist”

• Bo Goldman, the admired Hollywood screenwriter who took home Oscars for his work on “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Melvin and Howard”

• Glenda Jackson, the two-time Oscar winner who turned to politics in her 50s

• Piper Laurie, a respected actress with three Oscar nominations, including for her role in “Carrie”

• Bill Lee, a jazz bassist and composer who scored the early films of his son Spike Lee

• Richard Lewis, the acerbic stand-up comic who became a regular in movies and TV

• Ryan O’Neal, who became an instant movie star in the 1970 hit film “Love Story”

• Matthew Perry, the “Friends” star who had roles in movies such as “The Whole Nine Yards”

• Paul Reubens, the comic actor behind Pee-wee Herman who had scores of movie and TV credits

• Richard Roundtree, one of the first Black action heroes who was catapulted to fame in the movie “Shaft”

• Ryuichi Sakamoto, one of Japan’s most prominent composers, who scored the films “The Last Emperor,” “The Sheltering Sky” and “The Revenant”

• Tina Turner, the pop sensation who appeared in films such as “Tommy” and “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome”

• Carl Weathers, a former pro linebacker, who played Apollo Creed in the “Rocky” movies