PASSINGS / Steven Miessner

Steven Miessner, 48, the motion picture academy’s “keeper of the Oscars” who donned his signature white gloves to get the golden statuettes ready for their close-up, died of a heart attack Wednesday at his home.

Miessner would take custody of the Oscars as they arrived from the R. S. Owens foundry in Chicago, log them into a computer file, keep them secure, and then on the big night, give them a last rubdown backstage before handing them to the show’s trophy presenters.

He would record which Oscar was presented to whom and later make arrangements with the winners to get their statuettes properly engraved.

Tracking the statues was a year-round process, said Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills. Miessner also maintained a computer file on the current whereabouts of every Oscar awarded, as far as they could be known.

Miessner had been a member of the academy staff since 2002 and also served as an executive assistant to the academy’s executive director and its president.