Scott Derrickson, who directed James Ransone in five movies, has promised to remember the late actor, even if the Academy did not.
The Oscars’ In Memoriam segment paid emotional tribute to dozens of stars on Sunday — with standalone tributes to Rob Reiner, Diane Keaton and Robert Redford — however, The Wire star Ransone was not among them.
Ransone died by suicide on December 19 last year. He was 46.
“The Oscars In Memoriam ignored him but I cannot,” Derrickson — who directed Ranson in Sinister, Sinister 2, The Black Phone, Black Phone 2, andV/H/S/85 — shared on X on Tuesday.
“He was my friend. I put him in five films. In early January I buried James ‘PJ’ Ransone after he committed suicide… He was a complex, funny, talented, and undeniably reckless person. He was wildly alive and deeply loved.”
Ransone had been open about his struggles with physical and mental health, including past drug addiction and alleged abuse in his childhood. After his death, a woman came forward to say he had saved her from a sexual assault in 2006.
Ransone’s breakout role came in 2003, when he played hotheaded dock worker Ziggy Sobotka in season two of HBO’s hit series The Wire. Five years later, he portrayed real-life Marine Cpl. Josh Ray Person in the miniseries Generation Kill.
The Baltimore-born actor was known for his performances in horror movies, including Sinister, Sinister 2, In a Valley of Violence, Black Phone, and Black Phone 2, which was his final project.
In 2019, he starred as adult Eddie Kaspbrak in It Chapter Two alongside Bill Hader, Jessica Chastain, and James McAvoy.
He is survived by his wife and two young children.
Other notable omissions from this year’s In Memoriam segment included French film icon Brigitte Bardot, Dawson’s Creek star James Van Der Beek and Grey’s Anatomy’s Eric Dane.
Walt Disney Television’s Rob Mills, the executive vice president, unscripted and alternative entertainment who is in charge of the Oscars telecast, spoke about the backlash to the omissions in an interview with Variety published this week.
“It is hard. I think it’s the hardest thing they possibly do,” Mills said of the Academy. “It always is hard when they are sort of villainized for this. Yes, there’s always people who are left out. Unfortunately, we’re losing more and more people, and especially, we’re losing legendary people every year, so it is probably the hardest needle to thread. I do think what they did last night might have been the best In Memoriam in the history of the Oscars.”
The emotional Oscars segment saw When Harry Met Sally star Billy Crystal take to the stage to honour Reiner, who was stabbed to death alongside his wife Michelle Singer Reiner in December. Their son, Nick, was charged with their murder and pleaded not guilty in February.
Meanwhile, Rachel McAdams paid tribute to screen legends Diane Keaton and Catherine O’Hara. Keaton died in October last year from pneumonia, while O’Hara died in January after suffering a pulmonary embolism.
Barbara Streisand concluded the segment by honouring Redford, with whom she starred in The Way We Were and performed a short rendition of the film’s theme song. The actor died in his sleep in September, aged 89.
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