Sidney Poitier, trailblazing Hollywood icon who broke barriers for Black actors, dies at 94
He was number 278 on the list.
Sidney Poitier, the renowned Hollywood actor, director and activist who commanded the screen, reshaped the culture and paved the way for countless other Black actors with stirring performances in classics such as “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” has died, a source close to the family told NBC News on Friday.
He was 94. The actor's cause of death was not immediately given.
In a groundbreaking film career that spanned decades, Poitier established himself as one of the finest performers in America. He made history as the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor and, at the height of his fame, he became a major box-office draw.
Poitier, who rejected film roles based on offensive racial stereotypes, earned acclaim for portraying dignified, keenly intelligent men in 1960s landmarks such as “Lilies of the Field,” “A Patch of Blue,” “To Sir, With Love,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
He said he felt a responsibility to represent Black excellence at a time when the vast majority of movie stars were white and many Black performers were relegated to subservient or buffoonish roles. He came to be seen as an elder statesmen in the film industry, celebrated for his social conscience and admired for his regal bearing.
“I felt very much as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made,” Poitier once wrote about the experience of being the only Black person on a movie set.
He won the best actor Oscar in 1964 for his depiction of an ex-serviceman who helps East German nuns build a chapel in “Lilies of the Field.” The first Black man to win that honor, he remained the only one until Denzel Washington in 2002 — the same year Poitier received an honorary Oscar “in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human.”
In the course of his public life, Poitier was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009, two Golden Globe awards (including a lifetime achievement honor in 1982), and a Grammy for narrating his autobiography, “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography,” published in 2000.
Poitier was born prematurely Feb. 20, 1927, in Miami, to Bahamian parents while they were on vacation in the United States. He grew up in the Bahamas, spending his early years around his father’s tomato farm on Cat Island before the family relocated to Nassau. The teenage Poitier returned to the U.S., where he enlisted in the U.S. Army and briefly served in a medical unit.
He eventually made his way to New York City and discovered a passion for the performing arts. He applied to the American Negro Theatre, but he was rejected because of his accent, so he spent the next several months practicing American enunciation. When he re-applied, he was accepted into the company and, in 1946, he made his Broadway debut in “Lysistrata.”
Poitier made his feature debut in the 1950 film noir “No Way Out” and the following year appeared in “Cry, the Beloved Country,” a British film set in apartheid-era South Africa. He gained greater attention in the 1955 drama “Blackboard Jungle” as a troubled but musically gifted student at an inner-city high school.
He broke through in 1958 with “The Defiant Ones,” teaming up with Tony Curtis for the tale of two escaped prisoners forced to survive while shackled together. The film was a critical smash, and Poitier and Curtis were both nominated for best actor Oscars. (They lost to David Niven for “Separate Tables.”)
“The Defiant Ones” opened up exciting career opportunities for Poitier. He drew praise as the crippled beggar Porgy in Otto Preminger’s musical “Porgy and Bess” (1959), adapted from the George Gershwin opera, and the determined Walter Lee Younger in “A Raisin in the Sun” (1961), adapted from the Lorraine Hansberry play.
In the 1960s, Poitier leveraged his Oscar win for “Lilies in the Field” and his growing national celebrity. He refused roles based on racist caricatures and gravitated to films that celebrated the main character’s dignity, grace, intellect and honor.
When he started acting, he said in a 1967 interview, “the kind of Negro played on the screen was always negative, buffoons, clowns, shuffling butlers, really misfits. This was the background when I came along 20 years ago and I chose not to be a party to the stereotyping.
“I want people to feel when they leave the theater that life and human beings are worthwhile,” Poitier added. “That is my only philosophy about the pictures I do.”
“A Patch of Blue,” released in 1965, was a pathbreaking portrait of the relationship between Poitier’s educated office worker and Elizabeth Hartman’s blind white woman. The film further established him as one of the key leading men in Hollywood.
Two years later, in 1967, Poitier went on one of the most incredible runs of his career. He played a tough but compassionate school teacher in “To Sir, With Love,” Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs in the Southern crime drama “In the Heat of the Night,” and a widower engaged to the daughter of white San Francisco liberals in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”
The three films addressed race relations with varying degrees of intensity. “In the Heat of the Night,” anchored by Poitier’s galvanizing performance (“They call me Mister Tibbs!”), won the best picture Oscar. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” filmed when interracial marriage was still illegal in many states, was one of the few at the time to depict interracial love favorably.
Poitier’s work from the period drew its share of criticism, however. “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” released as the American film history was on the cusp of a stylistic revolution (“Easy Rider,” “The Graduate,” and so on), struck some viewers as instantly dated and square. Poitier, for his part, was sometimes faulted for playing idealized characters with few personal foibles.
In the early 1970s, Poitier went behind the camera. He made his directorial debut with the Western “Buck and the Preacher” (1972) casting himself alongside Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee. Poitier directed Belafonte again in “Uptown Saturday Night,” where they were joined by comedian Bill Cosby.
Poitier went on to direct Cosby in “Let’s Do it Again” (1975), “A Piece of the Action” (1977), and the family-geared misfire “Ghost Dad” (1990).
Poitier served on the Board of Directors for The Walt Disney Conpany from 1995 to 2003. He worked behind the scenes to get a special Oscar to an ailing James Baskett. On March 20, 1948, Baskett received an Academy Honorary Award for his performance as Uncle Remus. He was the first African-American male actor to win an Academy Award.
Poitier stepped away from acting for much of the 1980s, although he directed the hit Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor buddy comedy “Stir Crazy” (1980) and cast Wilder again two years later for “Hanky Panky,” co-starring “Saturday Night Live” alum Gilda Radner.
In the late 1980s, Poitier returned to acting, cropping up in “Shoot to Kill” and “Little Nikita,” both released in 1988. He delivered a memorable supporting turn in the cult comedy “Sneakers” (1992), and he went on to play Thurgood Marshall and Nelson Mandela in made-for-TV movies.
By the 2000s, Poitier effectively retired from screen acting, but he remained creatively productive. He published the autobiography “The Measure of a Man” in 2000; a follow-up book, “Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter,” in 2008; and a novel, “Montaro Caine,” in 2013.
He served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan for a decade, from 1997 to 2007, and he continued to inspire young talent across the performing arts.
Poitier is survived by his wife, Joanna Shimkus, a retired actress from Canada; and six daughters: two — Anika and Sydney Tamiaa — with Shimkus; and four — Beverly, Pamela, Sherri and Gina — with his first wife, Juanita Hardy.
Filmography
Actor
Year Title Role Notes
1947 Sepia Cinderella Extra Uncredited
1949 From Whence Cometh My Help Himself Documentary
1950 No Way Out Dr. Luther Brooks
1951 Cry, the Beloved Country Reverend Msimangu
1952 Red Ball Express Cpl. Andrew Robertson
1954 Go, Man, Go! Inman Jackson
1955 Blackboard Jungle Gregory W. Miller
1956 Good-bye, My Lady Gates Watson
1957 Edge of the City Tommy Tyler
1957 Something of Value Kimani Wa Karanja
1957 Band of Angels Rau-Ru Ponce de Leon
1957 The Mark of the Hawk Obam
1958 Virgin Island Marcus
1958 The Defiant Ones Noah Cullen
1959 Porgy and Bess Porgy
1960 All the Young Men Sgt. Eddie Towler
1961 A Raisin in the Sun Walter Lee Younger
1961 Paris Blues Eddie Cook
1962 Pressure Point Doctor (Chief Psychiatrist)
1963 The Long Ships Aly Mansuh
1963 Lilies of the Field Homer Smith
1965 The Bedford Incident Ben Munceford
1965 The Greatest Story Ever Told Simon of Cyrene
1965 A Patch of Blue Gordon Ralfe
1965 The Slender Thread Alan Newell
1966 Duel at Diablo Toller (contract horse dealer)
1967 To Sir, with Love Mark Thackeray
1967 In the Heat of the Night Det. Virgil Tibbs
1967 Guess Who's Coming to Dinner Dr. John Wade Prentice
1968 For Love of Ivy Jack Parks
1969 The Lost Man Jason Higgs
1970 King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis Narrator Documentary
1970 They Call Me Mister Tibbs! Lt. Virgil Tibbs
1971 Brother John John Kane
1971 The Organization Lt. Virgil Tibbs
1972 Buck and the Preacher Buck
1973 A Warm December Matt Younger
1974 Uptown Saturday Night Steve Jackson
1975 The Wilby Conspiracy Shack Twala
1975 Let's Do it Again Clyde Williams
1977 A Piece of the Action Manny Durrell
1979 Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist Narrator Short subject
1988 Shoot to Kill Warren Stantin
1988 Little Nikita Roy Parmenter
1991 Separate but Equal Thurgood Marshall
1992 Sneakers Donald Crease
1994 A Century of Cinema Himself Documentary
1996 Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick Himself Documentary
1997 The Jackal FBI Deputy Director Carter Preston
2001 Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey Narrator Documentary
2004 Tell Them Who You Are Himself Documentary
2008 Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project Himself Documentary
Director
Year Title
1972 Buck and the Preacher
1973 A Warm December
1974 Uptown Saturday Night
1975 Let's Do it Again
1977 A Piece of the Action
1980 Stir Crazy
1982 Hanky Panky
1985 Fast Forward
1990 Ghost Dad
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1952 CBS Television Workshop Performer Episode: Careless Love
1952 Omnibus Performer Episode: The Trial of Anne Boleyn
1962 The Jack Paar Tonight Show Himself 1 episode
1969 The Mike Douglas Show Himself 1 episode
1972 The Dick Cavett Show Himself 1 episode
1972 The New Bill Cosby Show Himself 1 episode
1975 The Merv Griffin Show Himself 1 episode
1979 The Mike Douglas Show Himself 1 episode
1991 Separate but Equal Thurgood Marshall Television movie
1995 Children of the Dust Gypsy Smith 2 episodes
1996 To Sir, with Love II Mark Thackeray Television movie
1997 Mandela and de Klerk Nelson Mandela Television movie
1998 David and Lisa Dr. Jack Miller Television movie
1999 The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn Noah Dearborn Television movie
1999 Free of Eden Will Cleamons Television movie
2000-07 The Oprah Winfrey Show Himself 5 episodes
2001 The Last Brickmaker in America Henry Cobb Television movie
2008 Larry King Live Himself 1 episode
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