Sidney Poitier, who was the first black man in Hollywood to win the prestigious Oscar for his film ‘Lillies Of The Field’ (1963), passed away on the evening January 6 at the age of 94. He was also the first black man to win an Academy Award and BAFTA Award for that film.
Sidney’s entire family was from Bahamas, but during his family’s visit to Miami for the weekends, Poitier was unexpectedly born in Miami and for that he automatically got the US citizenship in 1927.
Poitier started his career joining the American Negro Theatre when he was a teenager. He got his first break through ‘Blackboard Jungle’ in 1955. Then in 1958, his next film ‘The Defiant Ones’ won nine Academy Awards for both, Poitier and Tony Curtis’ roles as inmates. Poitier had also received critical acclaim for his films ‘Porgy And Bess’ (1959), ‘A Raisin In The Sun’ (1961) and ‘A Patch Of Blue’ (1965). He became a legend and created a distinguished legacy with three films ‘Race Relations: To Sir, With Love’, ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’ and ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ released within a year in 1967, which dealt with the racism issue and he was the first black man, who confronted the issue. He received Golden Globe Award and British Academy Award for these films.
In the early ‘70s, Poitier had also directed few films, which also received critical acclaim such as ‘Buck and The Preacher’ (1972), ‘A Warm December’ (1973), ‘Let’s Do It Again’ (1975), ‘A Peace Of The Action’ (1977), ‘Stir Crazy’ (1980) and many more, where he had also acted in few films.
Sidney Poitier received the prestigious Knighthood from Queen Elizabeth ll in 1974. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal Of Freedom in 2009, the highest civilian honor in the US by former President Barack Obama. In 1999, he ranked 22nd among all the male actors on the ‘100 Years…100 Stars’ list by the American Film Institute.
