There comes a time during every Oscar ceremony when things take a solemn turn, and with each passing name featured in the in memoriam segment, we are reminded of all of the industry titans we’ve lost.
Last year was a particularly tough one in terms of celebrity deaths—which is why the 2026 Oscars took a bit of extra time to pay respects to three legends in the industry. The first tribute of the night came from Billy Crystal, who appeared onstage to honor his late friends and collaborators Rob Reiner and Michele Singer Reiner, who died in December of last year. Crystal, who starred in Rob Reiner’s seminal rom-com When Harry Met Sally…, spoke movingly about the filmmaker, saying: “To the millions who have enjoyed his films all these years, I want you to know, here and around the world, how many times Rob told me that it meant everything to him that his work meant something to you.” Referencing the director’s 1987 film, The Princess Bride, Crystal added, “For us who had the privilege of working with and knowing him and loving him, all we can say is, ‘Buddy, what fun we had storming the castle.’” Crystal was then joined by a fleet of Reiner’s collaborators, who stood side by side. The group included Christopher Guest, Jerry O’Connell, Michael McKean, Wil Wheaton, Cary Elwes, Fred Savage, Mandy Patinkin, Meg Ryan, Carol Kane, Kiefer Sutherland, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak, John Cusack, Kathy Bates, Annette Bening, and Daphne Zuniga.
Afterward, Rachel McAdams paid honor to Diane Keaton, her onscreen mother in The Family Stone, who died in October. The actor, a “legend with no end,” wore “so many hats, literally and figuratively,” McAdams said. Keaton was an “actress, artist, author, activist. But no hat more important to her than being mother to her two children. She meant so much to so many of us.”
Finally, Oscar winner Barbra Streisand took to the stage to pay an emotional tribute to Hollywood legend Robert Redford, who starred with her in The Way We Were. Calling her costar an “intellectual cowboy who blazed his own trail,” Streisand remarked that she missed the actor now more than ever. She ended her tribute by singing a few incredibly impactful lines from the film’s eponymous theme.