Heaven’s Cates

Gil Cates, who directed Oscar telecasts with all the sensitivity, subtlety, nuance and emotion of a high school football coach armed with a clipboard, a stopwatch and a whistle, has been played off at the age of 77. Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s exuberantly over the top celebration after winning an Oscar for Jerry Maguire in 1996? Played off. Martin Landau basking in the adulation of the crowd as the culmination of nearly 40 years in show business with his 1995 Oscar for Ed Wood? Played off and cut to commercials as he called out, “No, no.” There are worse things than making the local news run a little late. Before keeping Hollywood stars from enjoying their 46th second of glory, Cates actually seemed to understand and appreciate actors, directing Gene Hackman and Melvyn Douglas to Academy Award nominations in I Never Sang for My Father and Joanne Woodward and Sylvia Sidney to nominations in Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams. Of special note for us Pooligans, he introduced the In Memoriam montage to the telecast.