When I saw this I actually said "Oh no," out loud to an empty room.

His book "A Life" is one of the best things I've ever read and it goes without saying that his films are some of the best things I've ever felt. You didn't see a film by Kazan you felt it.

There's going to be a terribly long "In Memorium" video at next year's Oscar ceremony...

Oh, dear. Hadn't thought about that. Surely, Billy won't recycle his "I see dead people!" line... Nah.

One thing nobody pointed out about the choice of DeNiro and Scorsese back in 1999: Both of them had appeared in "Guilty by Suspicion," a movie about the HUAC. Now I can't seem to track down a link to substantiate this, but my memory of the '99 Oscars is that DeNiro and Scorsese were asked to present the Lifetime Achievement Award. Both said yes. And then both were informed late into the game that the award recipient would be Kazan. By then, it was too late for either of them to back out. And the result was DeNiro and Scorsese standing nervously away from Kazan, with Kazan beckoning both over, "Marty! Bobby!" and the two reluctantly heading his way.

Now the big question is who was the person at the Academy who thought up this twisted joke. In all of the discussions of Kazan, nobody has ever tracked down the person responsible for the choice. There would have to have been some major discussion amongst a board of directors over all of the possible ramifications. I find it hard to believe that, in considering Scorsese and DeNiro, the reference to "Guilty by Suspicion" would have escaped the people who settled on Kazan. It would be fascinating for a scholar to eventually dig up any kind of meeting minutes, or track down the preliminary discussions involving Kazan as Lifetime Recipient. It would also be interesting to learn who, if anyone, had been approached to present the award before DeNiro and Scorsese. Or was the two processes of selecting a presenter and a recepient double-blind? Did the Academy deliberately keep the choice of Kazan to themselves before nabbing Scorsese and DeNiro?

Now that the man is dead, it's time to investigate just why Hollywood politics operated this way. Even in 1999.

1999 BBC article. The only Academy person quoted is Academy director Robert Rehme (if anyone wants to track him down to get the details on why Kazan was selected).

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/284052.stm

Steve Erickson on why Kazan shouldn't receive 1999 award:

http://www.salon.com/media/eric/1999/03/17eric.html

"And then both were informed late into the game that the award recipient would be Kazan. "

This is a lie. Scorsese was a stong advocate of honoring Kazan for years.