The widow of actor James Ransone is speaking out after the Television Academy left her late husband out of the Emmys’ televised In Memoriam tribute. Jamie McPhee called the omission a genuine snub, noting that Ransone’s name appeared only in the longer tribute the Academy published online.
“My husband James Ransone was not acknowledged in memoriam at tonight’s Emmys,” McPhee wrote on Instagram Stories, as quoted by Entertainment Weekly. “He was also not at the Oscars earlier this year. PJ was impossible, lovable, intolerable and incredible — depends on who you ask. But without question — he was a great actor. But good news is PJ wouldn’t care. He’d actually think it’s funny.”
In a follow-up, McPhee said she was “incredibly disappointed” with the Television Academy, adding, “James Ransone was an incredibly gifted actor and it simply is not right to not acknowledge him and his work.”
A Television Academy spokesperson defended the decision, telling Entertainment Weekly that the televised segment runs for “only a few minutes” and “there is a limit on how many people can be acknowledged.” Ransone was not the only name missing from the broadcast: Chuck Norris, Nicholas Brendon, Patrick Muldoon, Jaye P. Morgan, Daveigh Chase and Grizz Chapman were also left out. Brendon’s omission came during a ceremony that featured a “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” reunion with Sarah Michelle Gellar and David Boreanaz.
Ransone became widely known as Ziggy Sobotka in Season 2 of “The Wire.” His other credits included “Generation Kill,” “Tangerine,” “Sinister” and “It: Chapter Two.”
It was not the first awards-season tribute to pass him over. The Oscars omitted Ransone from its own In Memoriam segment in March. Director Scott Derrickson, who cast him in five films, pushed back at the time: “The Oscars In Memoriam ignored him but I cannot. He was my friend.” Derrickson said he buried Ransone in early January, after the actor died by suicide, describing him as “wildly alive and deeply loved.”
