Last year, Arizona State University named their film school in honor of Poitier and his incredible legacy.
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Warm, confident and with a dazzling control over his face, voice and body, Poitier’s movie stardom was well-deserved and put to good use. “My values are not disconnected from the values of the Black community.”Īnd beyond that, he was fantastic. “I go in front of a camera with a responsibility to be at least respectful of certain values,” Poitier told the Museum of Living History.
While his films broke down racism through sheer portrayals of strong, complex, often self-assured Black men-1967’s To Sir With Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner serving as one of the strongest single years of any actors’ careers-his work behind the scenes reflected this dedication to progressiveness. He also, alongside longtime friend Harry Belafonte, was an ideological and financial supporter of the Civil Rights Movement. This political position is just a small taste of Poitier’s diverse career: Aside from an Honorary Oscar, his win for Lilies of the Field and a nomination for The Defiant Ones, Poitier earned multiple Emmy nods, a knighthood, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom as he continued acting and directing until the 1990s. The office of the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the death of actor, who also once served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. After a trailblazing career on and off-screen, Poitier has died at age 94. The actor broke color barriers at America’s most prestigious and visible film awards, becoming the first Black man to win the Best Actor award (for his work on 1963’s Lilies of the Field) and one of the most visible and successful Black movie stars of the Golden Age. In 1995, Poitier received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.Where baseball had Jackie Robinson, the movies had Sidney Poitier.
He was granted a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. Poiter starred in three successful 1967 films which dealt with issues of race and race relations: To Sir, with Love Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies in the Field in 1963. Both actors received a nomination for Best Actor, with Poitier's being the first for a Black actor, as well as a nomination for a BAFTA, which Poitier won. In 1958, Poitier starred with Tony Curtis as chained-together escaped convicts in The Defiant Ones, which received nine Academy Award nominations. His “elegant bearing and principled onscreen characters made him Hollywood's first Black movie star,” said CNN. Poitier was born in Miami and grew up in the Bahamas, before moving back to the United States as a teenager before embarking on a groundbreaking career.
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GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE - SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST Oscar Award-winning Hollywood movie star Sidney Poitier has died.Īccording to CNN, the press secretary for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas confirmed Poitier’s passing.
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