BEVERLY HILLS, CA – DECEMBER 19: Actor Sidney Poitier attends the Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation’s 6th Annual Christmas Gala and Fundraiser at Montage Beverly Hills on December 19, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation)
(NewsNation Now) — Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to ever win a best actor Oscar and a legendary star from the Golden Age of Hollywood, has died, an official from the Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Friday. He was 94.
The Bahamian-American actor was known for films including “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.” Poitier won his Best Actor Oscar for the 1963 film “Lilies in the Field,” playing a handyman who helps German nuns build a chapel in the desert. Five years prior, Poitier had been the first Black man nominated for a lead actor Oscar for his role in“The Defiant Ones.”
His other classic films included “A Patch of Blue” in 1965, in which his character is befriended by a blind white girl and “A Raisin in the Sun,” which Poitier also performed on Broadway. Poitier also starred in “To Sir, With Love,” “Blackboard Jungle” and “Uptown Saturday Night.”
Few movie stars, Black or white, had such an influence both on and off the screen. Before Poitier, the son of Bahamian tomato farmers, no Black actor had a sustained career as a lead performer or could get a film produced based on his own star power. Before Poitier, few Black actors were permitted a break from the stereotypes of bug-eyed servants and grinning entertainers. Before Poitier, Hollywood filmmakers rarely even attempted to tell a Black person’s story.
Poitier’s rise mirrored profound changes in the country in the 1950s and 1960s. As racial attitudes evolved during the civil rights era and segregation laws were challenged and fell, Poitier was the performer to whom a cautious industry turned for stories of progress.
In total, he acted in more than 50 films and directed nine. Poitier received two more Academy Award nominations and 10 Golden Globe nominations. In 2001, Poitier received an honorary Oscar for his acting and humanitarian work.
“I love you, I respect you, I imitate you,” Denzel Washington, another Oscar winner, once told Poitier at a public ceremony.
Poitier was given the Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, the most prestigious honor after the Oscar, in 1992.
“I must also pay thanks to an elderly Jewish waiter who took time to help a young Black dishwasher learn to read,” Poitier told the audience. “I cannot tell you his name. I never knew it. But I read pretty good now.”
Poitier had four daughters with his first wife, Juanita Hardy, and two with his second wife, actress Joanna Shimkus, who starred with him in his 1969 film “The Lost Man.” Daughter Sydney Tamaii Poitier appeared on such television series as “Veronica Mars” and “Mr. Knight.”
Poitier never pretended that his Oscar was “a magic wand” for Black performers, as he observed after his victory, and he shared his critics’ frustration with some of the roles he took on, confiding that his characters were sometimes so unsexual they became kind of “neuter.” But he also believed himself fortunate and encouraged those who followed him.
“To the young African American filmmakers who have arrived on the playing field, I am filled with pride you are here. I am sure, like me, you have discovered it was never impossible, it was just harder,” he said in 1992 as he received his honor from the American Film Institute.
“Welcome, young Blacks. Those of us who go before you glance back with satisfaction and leave you with a simple trust: Be true to yourselves and be useful to the journey.”
A photo taken on July 12, 1958 shows American actors Tony Curtis (L) and Sidney Poitier in the movie “The defiant ones” directed by Stanley Kramer. AFP PHOTO (Photo by – / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD, CA – JUNE 08: (L-R) Writer George Stevens Jr., Joanna Shimkus, actor Sidney Poitier, and _____ backstage during American Film Institute’s 45th Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute to Diane Keaton at Dolby Theatre on June 8, 2017 in Hollywood, California. 26658_006 (Photo by Emma McIntyre/Getty Images for Turner)
Photo taken on June 25, 1983 shows Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier (R) and his wife Joanna Shimkus during the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament tennis match. (Photo by Ralph Gatti / AFP) (Photo by RALPH GATTI/AFP via Getty Images)
HOLLYWOOD, CA – JUNE 08: Actor Sidney Poitier (L) and writer George Stevens Jr. speak onstage during American Film Institute’s 45th Life Achievement Award Gala Tribute to Diane Keaton at Dolby Theatre on June 8, 2017 in Hollywood, California. 26658_007 (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 06: (EDITOR’S NOTE: image has been shot in black and white. Color version not available.) Actor Sidney Poitier attends the 50th anniversary screening of “In the Heat of the Night” during the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 6, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. 26657_003 (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for TCM)
LOS ANGELES, CA – APRIL 06: (EDITOR’S NOTE: image has been shot in black and white. Color version not available.) Actor Sidney Poitier attends the 50th anniversary screening of “In the Heat of the Night” during the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival on April 6, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. 26657_003 (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for TCM)
Bahamian American actor Sidney Poitier has his make-up adjusted on the set of ‘To Sir, With Love’, directed by James Clavell, 16th June 1966. The crew are filming a party scene at Victoria Barracks, Windsor Castle. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – DECEMBER 19: Actor Sidney Poitier attends the Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation’s 6th Annual Christmas Gala and Fundraiser at Montage Beverly Hills on December 19, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation)
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – DECEMBER 19: Actors Terrence J (L) and Sidney Poitier attend the Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation’s 6th Annual Christmas Gala and Fundraiser at Montage Beverly Hills on December 19, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for The Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation)
President Nelson Mandela (L) and US actor Sidney Poitier pose for cameras at Tuinhuis in Cape Town 17 May 1996. Sidney Poitier portrays President Mandela in a television feature film which is currently being filmed in Cape Town. AFP PHOTO Anna ZIEMINSKI (Photo by Anna ZIEMINSKI / AFP) (Photo by ANNA ZIEMINSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Photo taken on June 25, 1983 shows Bahamian-American actor Sidney Poitier (R) and his wife Joanna Shimkus during the Monte-Carlo ATP Masters Series Tournament tennis match. (Photo by Ralph Gatti / AFP) (Photo by RALPH GATTI/AFP via Getty Images)
BEVERLY HILLS, UNITED STATES: US actors Dustin Hoffman (L) and Sidney Poitier (2nd L) talk to host Barbara Davis (2nd R) and Larry King (R) at the Carousel of Hope, a star-studded gala benefitting childhood diabetes, in Beverly Hills, 28 October 2000. AFP PHOTO/Lucy Nicholson (Photo credit should read LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Bahamian American actor Sidney Poitier has his make-up adjusted on the set of ‘To Sir, With Love’, directed by James Clavell, 16th June 1966. The crew are filming a party scene at Victoria Barracks, Windsor Castle. (Photo by Chris Ware/Keystone Features/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, UNITED STATES: US actor Sidney Poitier (L) is congratulated by actor Denzel Washington (R) as he accepts the Life Achievement Award at the Sixth Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) in Los Angeles, 12 March 2000. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE) AFP PHOTO /Lucy NICHOLSON/ln (Photo credit should read LUCY NICHOLSON/AFP via Getty Images)
FILE – Actor Sidney Poitier poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 2, 2008. Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, died Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 in the Bahamas. He was 94. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE – President Barack Obama presents the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom to Sidney Poitier during ceremonies in the East Room at the White House in Washington on, Aug. 12, 2009. Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, died Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 in the Bahamas. He was 94. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
FILE – Sidney Poitier signs autographs before the opening of the 14th International Film Festival at the West Berlin congress hall on June 26, 1964 in Berlin. Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, died Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 in the Bahamas. He was 94. (AP Photo/Edwin Reichert, File)
FILE – Actor Sidney Poitier poses with his Oscar for best actor for “Lillies of the Field” at the 36th Annual Academy Awards in Santa Monica, Calif. on April 13, 1964. Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, died Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022 in the Bahamas. He was 94. (AP Photo, File)