Ranking the Late, Great Gilbert Cates's 14 Oscar Ceremonies, From 1990 to 2008

5. 71st Academy Awards (1999)

Host: Whoopi Goldberg

Most Remembered For: It's a toss-up: Best Actor-winner Roberto Benigni forgoing the aisles at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in favor of climbing over rows of attendees en route to collect his award, or Elia Kazan's polarizing Honorary Oscar acceptance, which found little acceptance itself among those who hadn't forgiven the filmmaker for naming names during the McCarthy Era.

Highlight: Forget about Benigni or Kazan or Goldberg's entrance as Queen Elizabeth I or even Gwyneth Paltrow's weepy pink pulchritude in accepting her Best Actress statuette --_nothing_ trumps the diva-off by Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston performing "When You Believe" from The Prince of Egypt. (Christina Ricci's introduction is some kind of priceless as well.)

4. 77th Academy Awards (2005)

Host: Chris Rock

Most Remembered For: The tense verbal jousting between Rock and eventual Best Actor winner Sean Penn over the cultural validity of Jude Law. Awkward!

Highlight: While the Penn/Rock stuff is pretty good, I'm partial to the great Sidney Lumet's Honorary Oscar acceptance: "I guess I'd just like to thank the movies." No rush on this one, Academy! (Also, what's with all the unembeddable Oscarcast video on your Web site? What would Gil Cates do? Anyway, the video's here.)

3. 64th Academy Awards (1992)

Host: Billy Crystal

Most Remembered For: Tough call! The Silence of the Lambs became only the third film (joining It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest) to sweep Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay -- and the first to inspire an Oscar host to to be wheeled out it a straightjacket and mask, but...

Highlight: ...for sheer, indelible entertainment value, nothing beat Jack Palance's Supporting Actor win and subsequent acceptance speech for City Slickers -- complete with one-armed push-ups.

Jack Palance - One-armed pushups by agg44

2. 70th Academy Awards (1998)

Host: Billy Crystal

Most Remembered For: Best Director winner James Cameron placing the exclamation point on Titanic's historic, 11-Oscar night by bellowing, "I'm king of the world!"

Highlight: Stanley Donen laid down arguably the most awesome Honorary Oscar acceptance speech ever, complete with tap dancing and opening act Martin Scorsese. (Please pardon the crummy video; the Academy's own clip is not embeddable.)

1. 66th Academy Awards (1994)

Host: Whoopi Goldberg

Most Remembered For: Man, you name it: Steven Spielberg's first Oscar win after four tries (three as a director, one as a producer) and a Thalberg award... Anna Paquin becoming the second-youngest winner in Academy Awards... Bruce Springsteen entering the ranks of Oscar owners for "Streets of Philadelphia"... Paul Newman taking home the Hersholt Humanitarian Award... all of which fall to...

Highlight: ...Tom Hanks's Best Actor acceptance speech, which instantly entered history as alternately the one of most touching, sincere, activist and emotional bundles of gratitude ever expounded on the Oscar stage. Shout-out to Mr. Farnsworth, and RIP, MR. Cates.

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[Top photo of Gilbert Cates: Getty Images]

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