Sidney Poitier (1927-2022)
African-American actor Sidney Poitier, known for breaking through Hollywood's racial barriers and being the first black actor to win an Oscar, passed away on January 7th, 2022. He was 94 years old. Without Sidney Poitier, all of this would not have been possible. He was an inspiration to many black performers who would go on to do big things, including Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington, Whoopi Goldberg, Halle Berry, and others.
Poitier was born in Miami and is the son of Bahamian tomato farmers. His father, Reginald, didn't expect him to live as he was only two months premature from birth and had brought home a shoebox to bury him if he died. But Sidney did survive and was raised on Cat Island in the Bahamas before moving to the U.S. at age 15. Poitier joined the American Negro Theatre in Harlem, and though it took him a while to adjust to film, he landed his first speaking role in "No Way Out" in 1950. Poitier garnered his first Best Actor Oscar nomination in 1959 for "The Defiant Ones," starring opposite Tony Curtis as escaped prisoners who work together to survive and stay free. Six years later, for his performance as handyman Homer Smith in the comedy-drama "Lilies of the Field," Poitier became the first African-American actor to win an Oscar. Before he died, he was the oldest living actor to win an Oscar. Because of this, the role remains his most memorable and has the most powerful social impact. In 1967, he was in the mystery drama "In the Heat of the Night," playing a homicide detective, Virgil Tibbs, who had to deal with bigotry. Other of his groundbreaking roles include his character befriending a blind girl in "A Patch of Blue," an English teacher in "To Sir, with Love," and a doctor trying to persuade the parents to accept his marriage to their daughter in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
In the late 1970s, Poitier scaled back his acting and turned his attention to directing films for Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, and Gene Wilder, like "Uptown Saturday Night" in 1974 and "Stir Crazy" in 1980. After nearly a decade, Sidney returned to acting in films and television, including 1988's "Shoot to Thrill" with Tom Berenger and the 1992 crime comedy "Sneakers" in an ensemble cast with Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, and James Earl Jones. Sidney Poitier was friends with the young, talented actor River Phoenix before Phoenix's untimely death in 1993. Phoenix appeared with Poitier in his two final theatrical movies, including the 1988 thriller "Little Nikita," in which they shared the screen and again in "Sneakers."
Beyond his acting, Poitier worked as a Civil Rights activist, joining Dr. Martin Luther King in his historic 1963 movement in Washington, D.C. For a decade, he was a bona fide ambassador, serving as the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007. He received many honours, including a Lifetime Achievement award from the American Film Institute and an Honorary Oscar Award in 2001 for "his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and a human being." Poitier even earned a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II of Britain in 1974. In 2009, he was awarded the highest honour for an American civilian, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, given by the first African-American President, Barack Obama.
Here are a few clips of his movies that highlight his screen presence. Such as the iconic line he uttered from his unforgettable role in "In the Heat of the Night."
