Sr. Sidney Poitier
Born: February 20, 1927, Miami, FL
Died: January 6, 2022, Beverly Hills, CA
Children: Sydney Tamiia Poitier, Anika Poitier, Beverly Poitier-Henderson, Pamela Poitier, Gina Poitier, Sherri Poitier
Spouse: Joanna Shimkus (m. 1976–2022), Juanita Hardy (m. 1950–1965)
Height: 6′ 2″
Date knighted: 1974
(Bahamian-American actor, film director, author, and Ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan. And He is also the Ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO)
Sidney Poitier is the greatest American movie star, according to Times culture critic Wesley Morris. Sidney Poitier was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. It took 38 years for another Black actor to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards. Only four Black actors have ever won in that category. His strength of character and determination to make a name for himself as an African-American actor, led him to become one of the most well-respected actors in Hollywood. Sidney Poitier passed away this past year but leaves behind a colossal legacy for African-American actors, filmmakers and artists.
Sidney Poitier’s parents were Evelyn and Reginald James Poitier, Bahamian farmers who owned a farm on Cat Island and traveled to Miami in the United States to sell tomatoes and other produce. Reginald worked as a cab driver in Nassau, Bahamas. Poitier was born in Miami while his parents were visiting. His birth was two months premature and he was not expected to survive, but his parents remained three months in Miami to nurse him to health. Poitier grew up in the Bahamas but because of his birth in the U.S., he automatically gained U.S. citizenship.
Poitier lived with his family on Cat Island until he was ten, when they moved to Nassau, Bahamas. At the age of 15 he was sent to Miami to live with his brother. He had the passion to be an actor and at the age of 17, he moved to New York City and held a string of jobs as a dishwasher. He then decided to join the United States Army after which he worked as a dishwasher until a successful audition landed him a spot with the American Negro Theatre. He joined the Theater, but was rejected by audiences. Contrary to what was expected of black actors at the time, Poitier’s tone deafness made him unable to sing. Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which he received good reviews. By the end of 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the 1950 film No Way Out . His performance in No Way Out, as a doctor, was noticed and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and more prominent than those most black actors of the time were offered. Poitier’s breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in the 1955 film Blackboard Jung.
In 1964, Sidney Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films, all of which dealt with issues involving race which mainly related in the majority of his acting career, 1959 A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in the 1965 film The Bedford Incident, and A Patch of Blue, To Sir, with Love , In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, 1970 They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!, and the 1971 film The Organization1971 making him the top box-office star of that year. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
Poitier has directed a number of popular movies, such as A Piece of the Action Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again, Stir Crazy and Ghost Dad. In 2002, thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated “To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.” Since 1997, he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
Sidney Poitier was married twice. His first wife Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950, until 1965. He has been married to Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian and Irish descent, since January 23, 1976. He has four daughters with his first wife and two with his second: Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, Gina, Anika, and Sydney Tamiia.
On January 6, 2022, Poitier died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 94. According to a copy of his death certificate obtained by TMZ, the cause of death was a cardiopulmonary failure, with Alzheimer’s disease and prostate cancer listed as underlying causes.
Sidney Poitier has written three autobiographical books: This Life (1980),The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography in 2000,Life Beyond Measure – letters to my Great-Granddaughter Poitier is also the subject of the biography Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon in 2004 by historian Aram Goudsouzian. Poitier wrote the novel Montaro Caine, released in May 2013.
Movies about Poitier: Sidney Poitier, an Outsider in Hollywood (Sidney Poitier, an outsider à Hollywood). Documentary film by Catherine Arnaud. Arte, France, 2008, 70 minutes.
Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light. American Masters, PBS. USA, in 2000. 60 minutes.
Sidney Poiter List of Awards.
1958 British Academy Film Award for Best Foreign Actor for The Defiant Ones
1958 Silver Bear for Best Actor Berlin Film Festival for The Defiant Ones
1963 Academy Award Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lilies of the Field
1963 Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field
1963 Silver Bear for Best Actor Berlin Film Festival for Lilies of the Field
1974 Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)
1982 Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award
1992 AFI Life Achievement Award
1995 Kennedy Center Honors
1997 Appointed non-resident Bahamian Ambassador to Japan
1999 SAG Life Achievement Award
2000 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn
2001 NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award
2001 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) and Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man
2002 Honorary Oscar – “For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style, and intelligence”
2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom
2011 Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute honoring his life and career.
Poitier was described as an icon in his obituary by USA Today. Laura Jacobs for Vanity Fair hailed Poitier as the “Martin Luther King Jr. of the movies”. Several film historians and journalists have called him Hollywood’s first African-American film star. The New York Times noted after his death, that Poitier was instrumental in the diversity of Hollywood and “paved the way for Black actors in the film”. The Hollywood Reporter wrote that “Poitier was the first actor to star in mainstream Hollywood movies that depicted a Black man in a non-stereotypical fashion, and his influence, especially during the 1950s and ’60s as a role model and image-maker, was immeasurable.”
While presenting Poitier the Honorary Academy Award in 2002, Denzel Washington said of Poitier: “Before Sidney, African American actors had to take supporting roles in major studio films that were easy to cut out in certain parts of the country. But you couldn’t cut Sidney Poitier out of a Sidney Poitier picture”. He was an influential African-American actor and highly viewed as such as he became the first Black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first Black male actor to win the award. He was also described as the “sole representative” of African-Americans in mainstream cinema during the 1950s and 1960s, especially during the height of the American Civil Rights movement. The New York Times noted that Poitier was “an ambassador to white America and a benign emblem of Black power”. For his role in diversifying Hollywood and for his role in paving the way for further Black actors, he was described as one of “the most important figures of 20th century Hollywood”.
Former president of the United States Barack Obama noted that Poitier had “[advanced] the nation’s dialogue on race and respect” and “opened doors for a generation of actors”.
Sidney, a documentary film about Poitier’s life and legacy by Reginald Hudlin, was released on September 23, 2022