Ingmar Bergman, director, I'd say, is the big one. Deborah Kerr, actor, also died.

Oh yeah. I completely forgot about Bergman. I bet he lands in the top three, if not the very last slot.

Did Heath miss the cut off for this year's dead roll call? (I don't remember if they do it strictly Jan-Dec or what the cut off is but it seems like there is a cut off.)

If he did, his death isn't going to have the same resonance a year from now. I bet they make an exception for him.

I also forgot about Jack Valenti. The academy might feel obligated to give him the main spot for his 38 year tenure on the MPAA board.

Valenti lobbied so that he would never expire. I'm grateful that there are some things Congress won't bring upon the people.

I think Susan Pleshette's death will resonate with far more people than Heath's.

After my great aunt died, I called the academy several times to ensure she would be in the memorial line up; the first few people I spoke to seemed amenable, but the last one snottily told me he hadn't read about her death in Variety (my cousin put a paid obit in the NY Times and there was a proper one in one of the tabloids; Nancy told me later that it didn't occur to her to call Variety)....and she wasn't mentioned. Her scene in Queen Christina has been discussed in film studies and she was one of the last people to see Jean Harlow's husband alive.

Ignore the bit about being with her father when he was shot; my other great-aunt said this was the result of a fight between them.

I look like her.

I seem to remember that it's based on the calendar year. It came up because Stanley Kubrick died just before the Oscars and he wasn't in the Memorial Roll, and people bitched about it.

Jack Valenti will probably get his own retrospective.

That will be when I go to get another beer, and pee off my back porch.

I suppose Johnny Grant will too.

I know its not cool to speak ill of the dead, but Jack Valenti was a tool, both literally and figuratively.