Poitier, Sir Sidney,
1927–2022, Bahamian-American actor, b. Miami, raised in the Bahamas,
returned to the United States at 14. Poitier served in the 1267th Medical
Detachment during World War II (1943-45), working in a hospital in Long
Island, and then settled in New York working to establish himself in the
theater. The first African-American actor to achieve leading man status in
Hollywood films, Poitier combined attractiveness and poise with an innate
projection of dignity and self-assurance. Many of his plays and films
directly addressed issues of race, including his Broadway triumph, Lorraine
Hansberry's
A Raisin in the Sun (1959, film 1961), and such films
as the pioneering No Way Out (1950), his movie debut; the
internationally acclaimed Cry, the Beloved Country (1951),
after Alan Paton's novel;
The Defiant Ones (1957), the film that established
Poitier's reputation; Lilies of the Field (1963; Academy
Award); Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967), which treated
the subject of interracial marriage; and In the Heat of the
Night (1967). Poitier was also active in the civil rights
movement. He turned to directing in 1971; among his films are Buck
and the Preacher (1972), A Patch of Blue
(1973), and Stir Crazy (1980). In 1991 he portrayed
Thurgood Marshall in the
Emmy-winning television film Separate but Equal. Knighted
in 1968, he was appointed the Bahamas' ambassador to Japan in 1997, serving
for ten years. His many honors included a Kennedy Center Honor (1995), a
Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oscars (2002, and the Presidential Medal
of Freedom (2009).
See his autobiographical works This Life (1980), The Measure of a
Man (2000), and Life beyond Measure: Letters to My
Great-granddaughter (2008); biography by A. Goudsouzian
(2004).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2024, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
See more Encyclopedia articles on: Film and Television: Biographies
