Sidney Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and activist known for his roles in To Sir with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, A Raisin in the Sun, and for changing the perceptions of Black actors in Hollywood, has died at the age of 94.
Born in Miami, Florida the youngest of seven children, the Bahamian-American Sidney Poitier became the first Black actor to win the Best Actor, earning it in 1963 for Lilies of the Field and his performance as itinerant handyman Homer Smith who builds a new chapel for a group of German nuns. He would continue to redefine what it means to be a Hollywood star with roles in trailblazing films such as Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, which portrayed an interracial couple at a time when such a thing was still considered taboo; and In the Heat of the Night in which he plays a homicide detective in the racist town of Sparta, Mississippi. His race would also play a factor the British drama To Sir, With Love, my personal favorite of Poitier’s films, in which he stars as a teacher instructing a group of unruly white students.
Poitier’s career would include other iconic films such as The Defiant Ones alongside Tony Curtis, the controversial Porgy and Bess, followed two years later by A Raisin in the Sun, and then A Patch of Blue. He also directed numerous films, including classic Black comedy Uptown Saturday Night, and the Gene Wilder/Richard Pryor film Stir Crazy. The last movie he directed was 1990’s Ghost Dad, a reunion with frequent collaborator and friend Bill Cosby. He is remembered fondly for his role in the HBO film Sneakers, alongside Robert Redford. His final feature film was 1997’s The Jackal opposite Richard Gere.
Following yesterday’s passing of Peter Bogdanovich, Poitier’s death is a particularly powerful gut punch, signaling the loss of an important generation of filmmakers.
