Harry Belafonte
Search results
Sidney Poitier KBE (/ ˈ p w ɑː t j eɪ / PWAH-tyay; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian and American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first Black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor . [2]
- 1943–1944
- 6, including Sydney Tamiia
- Who Was Sidney Poitier?
- Early Years in Miami and The Bahamas
- Stage Beginnings
- Early Career: 'No Way Out' to 'Blackboard Jungle'
- Oscar Nom For 'The Defiant Ones' and Win For 'Lillies of The Field'
- 'Heat of The Night,' 'Guess Who's Coming' and 'To Sir, with Love'
- Directing Successes: 'Buck and The Preacher' to 'Stir Crazy'
- 'Shoot to Kill' and Other Late Roles
- Books and Honors
- Marriages and Children
After a delinquency-filled youth and a short stint in the U.S. Army, Sidney Poitier moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He joined the American Negro Theater and later began finding roles in Hollywood. Following his performance in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field, he became the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor...
Sidney Poitier was born on February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. He arrived two and a half months prematurely while his Bahamian parents were on vacation in Miami. As soon as he was strong enough, Poitier left the United States with his parents for the Bahamas. There, Poitier spent his early years on his father's tomato farm on Cat Island. After th...
Poitier made a deal with the American Negro Theater in New York City to receive acting lessons in exchange for working as a janitor for the theater. He eventually made his way to the ANT stage, filling in for Harry Belafonte in their production of Days of Our Youth. In 1946, Poitier appeared in a Broadway production of Lysistrata to great acclaim. ...
Poitier made his Hollywood debut in the 1950 feature film No Way Out, and he followed in 1951 with Cry, the Beloved Country, a drama set in South Africa during the time of apartheid. He enjoyed a career breakthrough in 1955 with the popular Blackboard Jungle, portraying a troubled but gifted student at an inner-city school.
Poitier's success as an actor reached new heights when he scored an Academy Award nomination for the 1958 crime drama The Defiant Ones, with Tony Curtis. The following year, he lit up the screen as a leading man in the musical Porgy and Bess, co-starring with Dorothy Dandridge. Both this film and his impressive turn in the 1961 film adaptation of A...
In 1967, Poitier delivered three very different yet equally strong performances. He played Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs in the Southern crime drama In the Heat of the Night. In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner he played a Black man engaged to a white woman in this groundbreaking look at interracial marriage. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy p...
In 1972 Poitier made his directorial debut and co-starred with his friend Harry Belafonte in the Western Buck and the Preacher. The pair also appeared together in the 1974 comedy Uptown Saturday Night, the first of several Poitier-directed efforts that featured Bill Cosby. In 1980, Poitier helmed the Richard Pryor–Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, whi...
After a roughly 10-year absence from the big screen as an actor, in 1988 Poitier returned with a pair of dramas — Shoot to Kill and Little Nikita. Other notable later films include Sneakers (1992) and One Man, One Vote (1997). On the small screen, Poitier earned accolades for portraying some of history's famous men. He played U.S. Supreme Court Jus...
Turning his attention to sharing his many personal experiences, Poitier in 2000 published The Measure of a Man, which was billed as a spiritual autobiography. That same year he picked up a Grammy Award for best spoken word album for the audio version of the book. He later shared his years of wisdom for future generations with 2008's Life Beyond Mea...
Poitier was married to Juanita Hardy from 1950 to 1965, and together they had four children: Beverly Poitier-Henderson, Pamela Poitier, Sherri Poitier and Gina Poitier. He is currently married to Canadian-born actress Joanna Shimkus, and they have two children, Anika Poitier and Sydney Tamiia Poitier.
IMDb profile of Sidney Poitier, the first African American to win an Oscar for a leading role and a pioneer of social change in Hollywood. Explore his life, career, credits, photos, videos and trivia.
- January 1, 1
- Miami, Florida, USA
- January 1, 1
- Los Angeles, California, USA
Apr 2, 2024 · Sidney Poitier (born February 20, 1927, Miami, Florida, U.S.—died January 6, 2022, Los Angeles, California) was a Bahamian American actor, director, and producer who broke the colour barrier in the U.S. motion-picture industry by becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor (for Lilies of the Field [1963]) and ...
- Michael Barson
Jan 7, 2022 · The first black man to win a best actor Oscar, Poitier was a respected actor and humanitarian who broke racial barriers in Hollywood. He starred in classics such as Lilies of the Field, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner.
Jan 7, 2022 · Sidney Poitier, whose portrayal of resolute heroes in films like “To Sir With Love,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” established him as Hollywood’s first Black...
People also ask
Who is Sidney Poitier?
Did Oprah Winfrey call Sidney Poitier a friend?
Should Sidney Poitier be lost?
When did Sidney Poitier become a black icon?
Jan 7, 2022 · CNN — Sidney Poitier, whose elegant bearing and principled onscreen characters made him Hollywood’s first Black movie star and the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar, has died. He was...
