Viewers expressed widespread anger after the 2025 Emmy Awards’ televised In Memoriam tribute did not include Gene Hackman, the two-time Oscar winner who died earlier this year at 95.
The segment, which featured Vince Gill and Lainey Wilson performing Gill’s "Go Rest High on That Mountain," honored a number of well-known television and entertainment figures but omitted Hackman from the on-air roll call. Social media users on X posted questions and complaints, with some writing, "Where was Gene Hackman in the In Memoriam?" and "Did I miss GENE HACKMAN? Was he included?" One viewer posted, "Did they leave out Gene Hackman? Ugh."
The televised tribute included names such as David Lynch, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, George Wendt, Quincy Jones, Dame Maggie Smith and Chuck Woolery. The Emmys’ segment also reached beyond traditional television figures: Ozzy Osbourne was included and acknowledged both for his music career and for his role on the reality series The Osbournes. Viewers pointed to other notable omissions during the broadcast as well, naming figures including Hulk Hogan, Val Kilmer, Terence Stamp, Loni Anderson, Polly Holliday, Phil Robertson and others.
The Television Academy posts a more comprehensive In Memoriam list on its website each year, and that online roll call this year includes Gene Hackman’s name. The academy’s full list also recognizes a wider array of contributors to television and related entertainment fields that the abbreviated broadcast cannot always cover.
Hackman’s career spanned more than four decades and included both prominent film work and important television credits. He won Academy Awards for his roles in The French Connection (1971) and Unforgiven (1992) and was also known for performances in films such as Bonnie and Clyde (1967). Early in his career he co-starred on the 1965 television series I Spy, a credit many viewers cited in arguing that he belonged in the Emmy tribute.
Hackman and his wife, classical pianist Betsy Arakawa, 65, were found dead in February in their Santa Fe home. Authorities later released autopsy findings detailing separate causes and conditions. Arakawa died first, around Feb. 12, according to investigators; her death was attributed to Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome, a rare respiratory illness transmitted by rodent excreta. Her autopsy showed fluid accumulation in the chest and mild hardening of vessels that supply blood to the heart and body; she tested negative for COVID-19 and influenza and showed no signs of trauma.
Hackman’s autopsy did not find evidence of hantavirus infection. The report cited a history of congestive heart failure, severe chronic hypertensive changes in the kidneys, and microscopic brain findings consistent with advanced-stage Alzheimer's disease. It also described significant coronary and vascular disease, including previous coronary artery stents, a bypass graft and a prior aortic valve replacement, and noted remote myocardial infarctions. The documents said Hackman had a bi-ventricular pacemaker implanted in April 2019.
Fans and viewers criticized the Emmys’ broadcast for what they saw as an incomplete tribute, and several posted lists of other figures they felt were omitted. The Television Academy’s broader online memorial remains the official public record for the year’s honorees; the academy’s televised segment historically selects a subset of those remembered for time constraints. The academy did not immediately offer additional comment about the selection process for the televised segment.
The omission revived discussion about how award shows balance on-air remembrance with longer online memorials and how they decide which names to highlight during a limited broadcast window. Critics and supporters alike noted that while the Emmys’ televised In Memoriam cannot name everyone who contributed to television and entertainment, viewers expect widely recognized figures with ties to television to appear in the broadcast tribute.