Sidney Poitier
Born premature to impoverished tomato farmers, he only weighed three
pounds at birth. From this inauspicious beginning he grew into
a trailblazing giant of the 20th century.
Sidney Poitier became an actor and director who defined and documented the modern history of blacks in American film. His was a career of firsts. Poitier was the first black actor to win a prestigious international film award (Venice Film Festival, Something of Value, 1957). He was the first to be nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award (The Defiant Ones, 1958). He was the first to win the Best Actor Oscar (Lilies of the Field, 1963). He was the first to become the number one box office star in the country in 1968, proving his appeal stretched across racial lines. He was the first to insist on a film crew that was at least 50 percent black (The Lost Man, 1969). He was the first to star in mainstream movies that condoned interracial marriage and attacked apartheid. Vincent Canby, influential film critic for The New York Times, declared, "Poitier does not make movies, he makes milestones." When Denzel Washington won his Best Actor Oscar last March, Poitier's groundbreaking influence was one of the first things the actor cited. That same night, Poitier was given a Lifetime Achievement Oscar and a standing ovation.
Raised in the Bahamas with less than two years of formal education, Poitier came to the United States in his early teens. He wound up in New York City, totally alone, with only three dollars in his pocket. He slept on rooftops and in bus stations. An impulsive audition at the American Negro Theatre was rejected so completely that the would-be actor dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performance skills. On his second try, he was accepted and worked in nearly 10 productions with the company. His first film role came at the age of 22. Multiple-Academy Award winning director and writer Joseph Mankiewicz cast him in No Way Out as a doctor treating a white bigot. An illustrious acting career was launched, and Cry, the Beloved Country; In the Heat of the Night; To Sir, With Love and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? were but a few of the remarkable films in which the charismatic actor starred.
Poitier eventually stepped behind the camera to fulfill his dream of directing motion pictures. Among his directorial efforts was Stir Crazy with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, the biggest box office hit of 1980. That same year, Poitier published his autobiography, This Life. He has also been a member of the boards of USC's film school and the Walt Disney Company, and, in 1997, he was appointed the Bahamas' Ambassador to Japan.
Of Poitier, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, "He is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom." It is impossible to overstate Sidney Poitier's influence as a role model and artist, and he remains one of the most respected and beloved figures in American cinema of the last 100 years.