Say what you will about the legacy, taste and accomplishments of Gilbert Cates, the veteran producer and director who died today at age 77, but few people over the last quarter-century had more influence over the public perception of the Academy Awards. Maybe eight-time host Billy Crystal -- except that 14-time producer Cates was responsible for hiring him.
Among those 14 Cates-produced Oscarcasts -- more than any other producer in the show's 83-year history -- is a trove of milestones, meltdowns, snafus, poignancy and otherwise peerless instants Hollywood history. Movieline looks back now at each, ranking Cates's work and its impact on the Oscars, its attendees, its viewers, its organizers and the world as a whole. Re-order as you like in the comments.
14. 63rd Academy Awards (1991)
Host: Billy Crystal
Most Remembered For: Kevin Costner's Dance With Wolves punking Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas for both Best Director and Best Picture.
Highlight: Maybe not a "highlight" per se, but the Best Director presentation has everything: Tom Cruise butchering "Good Fellows," Scorsese clapping with resignation, and Costner's quaint tribute to Michael Ovitz, his wife and children, and his parents --in that order.
13. 62nd Academy Awards (1990)
Host: Billy Crystal
Most Remembered For: The utterly unremarkable run of Driving Miss Daisy to Best Picture. Helmer Bruce Beresford was snubbed by the Academy, prompting Crystal to quip in his opening song, "Did Driving Miss Daisy direct itself?"
Highlight: While many purists would lean toward Steven Spielberg and George Lucas's presentation of an Honorary Oscar to Japanese auteur Akira Kurosawa, I'll stand by the awarding of Best Original Song to Alan Menken and his late partner Howard Ashman for "Under the Sea." It was everything great, poignant and powerful that the Oscars stand for -- not to mention weird, featuring presenters, um, Paula Abdul and Dudley Moore:
12. 80th Academy Awards (2008)
Host: Jon Stewart
Most Remembered For: Nobody watching it.
Highlight: Dark horse Best Actress winner Marion Cotillard's thrilled, emotional acceptance speech (sadly not embeddable, but available here.)
11. 65th Academy Awards (1993)
Host: Billy Crystal
Most Remembered For: Incumbent Supporting Actor winner Jack Palance hauling Crystal onstage aboard a huge Oscar. (Palance's IMDB credit for the night actually reads "Himself - Presenter: Best Actress in a Supporting Role & Pulling Billy Crystal on giant Oscar")
Highlight: It took them a while to get to their actual introduction, but Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni's Honorary Oscar presentation to Federico Fellini -- and the maestro's subsequent speech ("I didn't expect this, but maybe I did!") -- narrowly edge out a night that also saw Elizabeth Taylor collect the Hersholt Humanitarian Award and a WTF performer roster including Placido Domingo, Sheila E., Natalie Cole and Nell Carter. Bonus: Watch for Robert Downey Jr.'s glassy-eyed equanimity in the standing ovation.
10. 73rd Academy Awards (2001)
Host: Steve Martin
Most Remembered For: Björk's infamous swan dress and Marcia Gay Harden's shocking Suporting Actress upset notwithstanding, it's hard to surpass Julia Roberts waving off "Stick Man" Bill Conti, who dared to commence playing the Best Actress winner off before her acceptance filibuster was finished.
Highlight: Ahem. Imagine Cates backstage, quietly ruing to his aides, "Sweet Jesus, I have seen it all."
9. 75th Academy Awards (2003)
Host: Steve Martin
Most Remembered For: Surprise winner Adrien Brody's overtime tonsil-hockey game with Best Actor presenter Halle Berry.
Highlight: Olivia de Havilland introducing the epic reunion/roll call of living Oscar-winning actors. No embeddable video exists, but you can check it out at the Oscars' YouTube page. I'm fond of the George Chakiris cameo, myself:
8. 69th Academy Awards (1997)
Host: Billy Crystal
Most Remembered For: The historical significance of Saul Zaentz winning his third Best Picture -- -- for The English Patient -- in as many decades. Ha! Kidding. Who can forget Supporting Actor winner Cuba Gooding Jr. losing his shit?
Highlight: Did I mention Cuba Gooding Jr. lost his shit?
Cuba Gooding Jr. Oscar Acceptance Speech by Lilia44540
7. 67th Academy Awards (1995)
Host: David Letterman
Most Remembered For: Two words: "Uma... Oprah." Well, that and Forrest Gump eclipsing Pulp Fiction for the evening's top honors. Another feather in the Academy's cap, there.
Highlight: Theoretically it should be Quentin Tarantino and Roger Avary scoring Adapted Screenplay, but come on. Witness again what might be the most cringe-inducing bit of live television Gilbert Cates ever produced:
6. 78th Academy Awards (2006)
Host: Jon Stewart
Most Remembered For: Being the year Crash won Best Picture, thus setting Oscar culture, politics and/or legitimacy back about 50 years.
Highlight: I don't know what was funnier about Three Six Mafia's win for Best Song: Fellow nominee Dolly Parton's slightly overgracious reaction, presenter Queen Latifah's dance-chant, or Stewart's genius follow-up, "For those keeping score, that's Three Six Mafia, one, and Martin Scorsese, zero."
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.
Follow S.T. VanAirsdale on Twitter.
Follow Movieline on Twitter.
[Top photo of Gilbert Cates: Getty Images]