LOS ANGELES

Steven Miessner, the motion picture academy's devoted "Keeper of the Oscars" who each year donned his signature white gloves to get the golden statuettes ready for their closeup before a worldwide audience, is dead at age 48.

Miessner died at his home on Wednesday of a heart attack.

Leading up to the Academy Award ceremony, Miessner would take loving custody of the Oscars as they arrived from the R. S. Owens foundry in Chicago, logging them into a computer file, keeping them safe and secure, and then on the big night, giving the coveted statuettes one last rubdown backstage before handing them to the show's trophy presenters.

He would then record which individually-numbered Oscar was presented to whom and later, arrange with the winners to get their statuettes properly engraved.

Academy colleagues, stagehands and reporters alike marveled at Miessner's dedication and enthusiasm as he worked with the statuettes - a job that was actually a year-round process, according to Leslie Unger, spokeswoman for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"He maintained the computer files on the current whereabouts, so far as can be known, of every Oscar ever awarded," Unger said. "He also was the liaison with R.S. Owens when a vintage statuette needed refurbishing."

In addition to his Oscar duties, Miessner was an executive assistant to academy executive director Bruce Davis and president Sid Ganis.

A member of the academy staff since 2002, Miessner "was central to the day-to-day operations of the organization," said Unger.

He is survived by his mother, Virginia Miessner, a sister and a brother.

Funeral services were pending.