Hollywood has lost one of its most beloved, iconic and important actors: Sidney Poitier, who broke ground as the first Black actor to become a major box office star and to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, has died at 94.
Poitier’s critically acclaimed performances in successful films like In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, in an era of racial divisions when roles were very limited for Black actors, is credited with helping to break the color barrier in Hollywood.
Poitier died in his home on Thursday, ministers from the Bahamas confirmed.
“[I am] conflicted with great sadness and a sense of celebration when I learned of the passing of Sir Sidney Poitier,” Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas Chester Cooper told ABC News. “Sadness that he would no longer be here to tell him how much he means to us, but celebration that he did so much to show the world that those from the humblest beginnings can change the world and that we gave him his flowers while he was with us.”
Early life
Poitier was born on February 20, 1927, while his parents, Bahamian farmers, were visiting Miami for work. This unexpected birth granted him US citizenship, but he spent most of his childhood in the Bahamas.
After serving for a year in the Army during World War II, Poitier began his acting career by joining the American Negro Theater. Poitier could not sing, which was expected of Black entertainers in that era, but instead focused on refining his acting talents.
His efforts paid off: he landed roles on Broadway, as a lead in a production of Lysistrata and an understudy in Anna Lucasta. This led to him beginning his career in Hollywood, after being cast as a doctor in the 1950 noir No Way Out.
His big break was playing a rebellious high school student in the groundbreaking 1955 inner-city social drama, Blackboard Jungle.
In 1958, he starred opposite Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones, a drama about two escaped convicts — one black, one a racist white — chained together while on the run. Poitier made history as the first Black actor to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Another major role in this era was the original Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, a classic American play about Black life. Poitier reprised his role in the film adapdation.
In 1963, he starred in Lillies of the Field, playing a handyman helping a group of German nuns build a chapel. He made history again by becoming the first Black male actor to win a competitive Academy Award, winning Best Actor in a Leading Role.
It was a historic feat that defied the color barrier of Hollywood at the time, and reflecting a broader cultural shift in race relations. It would be decades before another Black actor won the top prize at the Oscars — but Denzel Washington, who considered Poitier a mentor, was sure to thank him in his acceptance speech after winning in 2002 for Training Day.
“I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney,” Washington said in his speech. “I’ll always be following in your footsteps. There’s nothing I would rather do, sir.”
‘Sidney Poitier syndrome’ and representation
Poitier became one of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars. But despite his groundbreaking success and critical acclaim, Poitier as the only major Black leading man of his era, bore the heavy weight of representation.
At the height of his success, he was sometimes criticized by other Black actors, both for not being more politically involved and for only playing roles that were palatable for white audiences.
A 1967 article in the New York Times described “Sidney Poitier syndrome”: “a good guy in a totally white world, with no wife, no sweetheart, no woman to love or kiss, helping the white man solve the white man’s problem.”
But Poitier was also careful about which roles he took: knowing he was many people’s view of Black Americans, he chose to play upstanding citizens and refused to play “cowards” or other demeaning roles.
And if Poitier’s roles weren’t always the most multifaceted, it was more due to the racial views of his time: despite being a major box-office draw, he would never get cast as a “romantic lead.” But Poitier defended his choices.
“It’s a choice, a clear choice,” Poitier said in a 1967 interview, as quoted by the Times. “If the fabric of the society were different, I would scream to high heaven to play villains and to deal with different images of Negro life that would be more dimensional. But I’ll be damned if I do that at this stage of the game.”
And Poitier’s acceptance by white Hollywood audiences did not shield him from the racial hostilities of the era: according to AP, he was followed by the Ku Klux Klan during a visit to Mississippi.
Top star of 1967
The peak of Poitier’s career was the year 1967, in which he starred in three of the year’s biggest hits and was considered the year’s biggest box-office star.
He played an inner city school teacher in the British drama To Sir, With Love, a film that dealt with issues about race.
He also starred, alongside Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, in the film Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, one of the first films to deal with the then-controversial issue of interracial marriage in a positive light. While his performance as a wealthy, intelligent doctor exemplified the type of role his detractors criticized him for, the film was groundbreaking and a major financial success.
He also starred in perhaps his most enduring film: In the Heat of the Night, a crime drama in which Poitier played a Black police detective from Philadelphia who has to partner with a white sheriff to solve a murder in a small Mississippi town.
The film was the source of one of Poitier’s most famous on-screen moments: “They call me Mister Tibbs!”
The line is frequently parodied and often shows up on lists of the all-time great movie quotes, including a list by the American Film Institute.
The film is also regarded as a classic. It won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and ranks on AFI’s list of the 100 greatest American films of all time.
Later career
Poitier’s character, Virgil Tibbs, proved to be one of his most popular and he reprised the role in two sequels, which were less successful.
Poitier appeared in fewer films going forward, instead beginning a career as a director. In the ’70s and ’80s, he directed several successful comedies, including the 1980 Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor film Stir Crazy.
He occasionally returned to the screen in acting roles, receiving acclaim for playing real-life figures like Thurgood Marshall and Nelson Mandela in television movies.
He received widespread honors for lifetime achievement, recognized as a groundbreaking Black actor.
In 1974, he was granted knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II. He received lifetime achievement honors from both the Academy Awards and the Golden Globes. In 2009, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama. He was listed as one of the best male stars of all time by the American Film Institute.
Tributes from Hollywood
In his old age, he was one of the last surviving stars of the Golden Age of Hollywood, and remained a well-respected inspiration to many actors, especially Black film stars who followed in his footsteps.
After his passing, Poitier received widespread tributes online from the film community.
“It was a privilege to call Sidney Poitier my friend,” said actor Denzel Washington, according to the Times. “He was a gentle man and opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years. God bless him and his family.”
“For over 80 years, Sidney and I laughed, cried and made as much mischief as we could,” said Poitier’s friend and contemporary, Harry Belafonte. “He was truly my brother and partner in trying to make this world a little better. He certainly made mine a whole lot better.”
Rest in peace to the amazing, groundbreaking actor Sidney Poitier. He may be gone but leaves behind many classic films and an important legacy.
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