Rashida Jones accepted her late father Quincy Jones’ honorary Oscar two weeks after his death.
Rashida, 48, and three of her siblings — Martina, 58, Quincy III, 55, and Kenya, 31 — took the stage at the Governors Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday, November 17, to accept the award honoring their father’s contributions to film music. (Quincy scored films such as The Italian Job, The Wiz and The Color Purple.)
The Parks and Recreation star said that before his death on November 3, Quincy was working on a speech for the special occasion and “really, really, really intended on being here with us,” per People.
“Our father passed away two weeks ago today,” Rashida said, per Billboard. “Four of the seven of [Jones’ children] are here and our beautiful family in the audience, and he has so many friends in this room — well, actually, probably in every room, if I’m being honest, because wherever he went he made connections with everyone. He had this natural gift with people. He knew how to stay present, stay curious and stay loving.”
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“In some ways, it was a difficult decision for our family to be here tonight but we felt like we wanted to celebrate his beautiful life and career,” Rashida continued. “His music has literally defined an entire century of culture — jazz, disco, film, pop, hip-hop, but the real thread in his music is that his music is all infused with his love.”
Rashida, who said her father was “really excited” to attend the awards, then read out a few words written by Quincy before his death.
“When I was a young film composer, you didn’t even see faces of color working in the studio commissaries. I’m so, so proud of the fact that my name and contributions can be included in that evolution,” Quincy wrote, noting that working with Sydney Pollack and Steven Spielberg were some of the highlights of his career.
Rashida also encouraged those in attendance to listen to Quincy’s entire music catalog.
“There’s an entire universe waiting in his seven decades of music, and while you listen, hear how he imbued love into every single second of music he made. That was his real legacy. He loved life. He often said, ‘Live every day like it’s your last and one day you’ll be right,’” the actress said.
Jones died November 3 at his home in the Bel Air area of Los Angeles, his publicist Arnold Robinson said.
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The legendary music producer was laid to rest in a private funeral ceremony in Los Angeles a week after his death.
According to a death certificate obtained by TMZ on Wednesday, November 13, Jones died of pancreatic cancer. The outlet reported that there were no other contributing factors to the musician’s death. Prior to his death, Jones did not publicly share that he was battling cancer.
