Sidney Poitier

Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE (February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was an American-born Bahamian actor, movie director, author, and diplomat. He became a star in American movies and plays which went against racial stereotypes, and made black actors more respected in mainstream roles.

From 1997 through 2007, he was the Bahamian ambassador to Japan.

Early life
Poitier was born in Miami, Florida. He grew up with his family on remote Cat Island, in the Bahamas. His mother was called Evelyn and his father was called Reginald James Poitier. They had a farm. Poitier's birth was premature and people did not expect him to survive, but his parents stayed three months in Miami until he became well. Since he was born in Miami, Poitier automatically gained U.S. citizenship.

When he was 15, Poitier's parents sent him off Miami to live with his older brother. At 17, he moved to New York City and got several menial jobs. During this time, he was arrested for vagrancy (being homeless) after having to leave his home for not paying rent. He decided to join the United States Army. He worked as a dishwasher until he got a job with the American Negro Theater.

Acting career

Poitier was tone deaf, and could not sing or dance. This is what black actors did at the time, so audiences did not like him. He worked very hard to improve his acting skills, and to get rid of his Bahamian accent. He eventually got a leading role in the Broadway play called Lysistrata and he got excellent reviews. At the end of 1949, he got a job working for Darryl F. Zanuck in the movie No Way Out (1950). He played a doctor treating a white bigot. After this job, he soon got more movie roles. The acting jobs he got were better and more interesting than the roles most black actors played at the time.

In 1955, he played a member of an badly behaved high school class in Blackboard Jungle. This was an important role in Poitier's career.

Poitier was the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963).

He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the movie version released in 1961. He was also in The Bedford Incident (1965), and A Patch of Blue (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful actor at the box office, with three successful movies, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night. The last movie featured his most successful character, Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania detective.

However, Poitier began to be criticized for typecasting himself, playing black characters who had only good personalities, like his character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Poitier agreed with this but although he wanted more different roles, but also wanted to set a good example with his characters and go against the negative stereotypes that had come before. He was the only major black actor in the American movie industry at the time.

Directing career
Poitier directed several movies, the most successful being the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy. The first movie he directed was the western Buck and the Preacher. He was also the star, with Harry Belafonte. Other movies he directed are Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad.

Personal life

Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950 until 1965.  He married Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born actress in January 23, 1976. He had four daughters by his first marriage and two by his second.

Poitier wrote three autobiographical books, This Life (1980), The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000) and Life Beyond Measure - letters to my Great-Granddaughter (2008).

Later life
In April 1997, Poitier became ambassador from the Bahamas to Japan. He was also the ambassador from the Bahamas to UNESCO. From 1998 to 2003, he was a Member of the Board of Directors of The Walt Disney Company.

In 2001, Poitier received an Academy Honorary Award for his overall contribution to American cinema. In August 2009, he received the Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.

Poitier died at his home in Los Angeles, California on January 6, 2022, at the age of 94. The cause of death was heart failure caused by Alzheimer's disease and prostate cancer.

References

Other websites

 Official publisher web page 
 Sidney Poitier to get Marian Anderson Award (July 26, 2006)
 The Purpose Prize: Sidney Poitier  The Purpose Prize: Sidney Poitier 
 Overview of Sidney Poitier's life 

 Artist of the Month: Sidney Poitier at Hyena Productions

1927 births
2022 deaths
Academy Award winning actors
Actors from Miami, Florida
African American actors
Ambassadors to Japan
American autobiographers
American diplomats
American movie actors
American movie directors
American screenwriters
American television actors
BAFTA Award winning actors
Bahamian politicians
Golden Globe Award winning actors
Grammy Award winners
Kennedy Center honorees
Military people from Florida
Politicians from Florida
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
Screen Actors Guild Award winners
Writers from Florida
Honorary Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire
Deaths from heart failure
Deaths from Alzheimer's disease
Deaths from prostate cancer