Philip Davis, confirmed to CNN that the prolific actor died on Thursday night. [100], In 2002, Poitier received the 2001 Honorary Academy Award for his overall contribution to American cinema. Hearst Television. For his performance, Poitier received a 1960 Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy.[60]. [81] Despite this, many of the films in which Poitier starred during the 1960s would later be cited as social thrillers by both filmmakers and critics. Yet despite the inroads he made in his own industry in the age of Jim Crow, Poitier came to be castigated by some, unfairly or not, as someone who chose safe roles that made white people feel comfortable, rather than ones that more directly confronted racial prejudice. (1970) and The Organization (1971).[86]. He made his way to understudy and became friends with a classmate, Harry Belafonte. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. One of the greatest actors of his generation.. (1988), with Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, and did uncredited work on Garry Marshall's "The Flamingo Kid" (1984), Forman's "Ragtime" (1981) and Demme's "Swing Shift" (1984). [13] From 1997 to 2007, he was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan. His father was a tomato farmer, and by the age of 13, Poitier was working a full-time job to help his family. In essence, it was a story similar to his real-life saga. Details on the timing and manner of his death were not immediately available. Success is not a given, but it can come to those who translate talent into craft and perseverance. He showed us how to reach for the stars. Westworld star Jeffrey Wright called him a landmark actor. He later co-starred with Robert Redford and Dan Aykroyd in Sneakers (1992) and played the deputy director of the FBI in The Jackal (1997), opposite Bruce Willis. Sir Sidney took Hollywood by storm in the 1960s as the first leading Black man amid racial tensions and the civil rights movement. According to a certain taste that was coming into ascendancy at the time, I was an Uncle Tom, even a house Negro, for playing roles that were non-threatening to white audiences, for playing the noble Negro who fulfills white liberal fantasies., He just wasnt of those times, said Al Young, a scriptwriter who briefly worked with Poitier in the 1970s. He was 94. He was 90. Sidney Poitier, the noble leading man whose work in such films as No Way Out, Lilies of the Field and In the Heat of the Night paved the way for minority actors and actresses everywhere, has died. Bo Goldman Dead: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest - Variety Sidney Poitier, groundbreaking star of American movies, has died at the age of 94. [34], After leaving the Army, he worked as a dishwasher until a successful audition landed him a role in an American Negro Theatre production, the same company he failed his first audition with. "It is with great sadness that I learned this morning of the passing of Sir Sidney Poitier. I treasure him. "[102], With the death of Ernest Borgnine in 2012, Poitier became the oldest living recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor. Poitier was the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor when he was acknowledged for his portrayal of a good-hearted handyman for Arizona nuns in Lilies of the Field (1963). He had four daughters with his first wife (Beverly,[113][114] Pamela,[115] Sherri,[116] and Gina[117]) and two with his second (Anika[118] and Sydney Tamiia[119]). After 10 years behind the camera, Poitier re-emerged as an actor. Poitier died Thursday night at his home in Beverly Hills, a rep for his family told The Hollywood Reporter. But I'll be damned if I do that at this stage of the game. Poitier enjoyed working for director William Wellman on Good-bye, My Lady (1956). Just a few years later, he would share Hollywoods first-ever interracial kiss with Katharine Houghton in 1967s Guess Whos Coming to Dinner.. Sir Sidney Poitier, Hollywood's first Black movie star, has died at age 94, multiple outlets reported. with Sidney Poitier and River Phoenix, and did uncredited work on Garry Marshall's "The Flamingo . Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. His daughter Gina Poitier died in 2018. According to the official document obtained by PEOPLE on Tuesday, the legendary actor. After winning the Oscar for best actor at the 1964, actor Ann Bancroft, the awards presenter, gave him a small kiss on the cheek, which caused something of a scandal at a time in which anti-miscegenation laws were still in place in many states, making it illegal for a Black man and white woman to get married. Since his big-screen debut as an extra in 1947, Poitier appeared in more than 40 films, including Blackboard Jungle (1955) and the landmarkA Raisin in the Sun (1961). revealed that he had initially turned down. Poitier was born in Miami on Feb. 20, 1927. [62] Also in 1961, Poitier starred in Paris Blues alongside Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Louis Armstrong, and Diahann Carroll. The legendary entertainer, who was the first black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, died from a combination of heart failure, Alzheimers dementia and prostate cancer, according to a death certificate obtained by TMZ on Tuesday. Sidney Poitier has died, aged 94. [30] At sixteen, he moved to New York City, looking to become an actor, holding a string of jobs as a dishwasher in the meantime. What a beautiful, gracious, warm, genuinely regal man. By the time he was 19, in 1946, he was on Broadway in the all-black production of Lysistrata. By the time he was 23, he had made it to Hollywood with the 1950 noir film No Way Out., For all the criticism he faced later in his career, it was not always easy for Poitier, even at his highest moments. Along with Barbra Streisand and Paul Newman, Poitier formed First Artists Production Company so actors could secure properties and develop movie projects for themselves. In 1980, he directed Stir Crazy, which went on to become a runaway hit, and reunited with Wilder (and Gilda Radner) to helm Hanky Panky. Sidney Poitier, First Black Man To Win Oscar For Best Actor, Dies At Poitier was originally a French name, and there were then no Poitiers of French ancestry nearby in the Bahamas. The following year, Poitier received a best actor Oscar nom for his performance as an escaped convict opposite Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones. Your culture and entertainment cheat-sheet. Sidney Poitier starred in films such as To Sir With Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. His strong turn won him a role as a South African clergyman in Cry, the Beloved Country (1952), and he went on to break through as one of the rebellious high school students in Richard Brooks Blackboard Jungle, a searing look at inner-city education. Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy, Poitiers best known directorial effort. Sidney Poitier: Hollywood trailblazer dies aged 94 7 January 2022 Reuters Sidney Poitier was a trailblazing actor who broke through Hollywood's racial barriers Sidney Poitier, the first. In 2009 he was awarded the presidential medal of freedom, and in 2016 a Bafta fellowship. America benefited from their effort. The film was a hit, with its use of Bill Haleys Rock Around the Clock ensuring a large teenage audience; in the UK it inspired the infamous Elephant and Castle teddy boy riot of 1956. He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney Poitier dies aged 94 | The Independent As one of the few who had made an impact, Poitier then went to South Africa to shoot the British-produced adaptation of Cry, the Beloved Country; his experience of apartheid in there pushed him towards activism. He was 94 years old. After being allowed to attend classes, Poitier stepped in when Belafonte, then a star student, was unable to perform. . There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. He was 94. Sidney Poitier, whose groundbreaking acting work in the 1950s and 60s paved the way for generations of Black film stars, has died aged 94. Jan. 7, 2022 8:03 AM PT It was the most unlikely of beginnings. Poitier, who has died at 94, helped reshape that world to such a degree that we'll never be able to reckon fully with his impact. 3 min read. He was assigned to a Veteran's Administration hospital in Northport, New York, and was trained to work with psychiatric patients. In 2017, his family gathered to celebrate his then-90th birthday, and he appeared in good spirits in a photo from the party. In 1963, he had a triumphant win as the first Black man to win an Oscar for best actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win a Best Actor Oscar, has died. "The boy who moved from the tomato farm of Cat Island to become a waiter in the United States; the young man who not only taught himself to read and write, but who made the expression of words and thoughts and feelings central to his career; The man who expressed his rage against racial injustice through quiet dignity; The humanitarian who used his steely determination not just to better himself, but to better the world that he lived in, filtered through the milk of human kindness," he said, concluding, "Your peers don't give you an Oscar, you win an Oscar. Beloved Bahamian Actor Sir Sidney Poitier Has Died at Age 94 - POPSUGAR [109], Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950, until 1965. Sidney Poitier, Who Has Died at 94, Helped Reshape the World - TIME [64] For this role, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and became the first Black male to win the award. In 1961, Poitier starred in the film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun for which he received another Golden Globe Award nomination. Sidney Poitier: In The Heat Of The Night star - Sky News [146] He was an influential African-American actor and highly viewed as such as he became the first Black actor to be nominated for an Academy Award and the first Black male actor to win the award. The Hollywood star was known for films including Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Lilies of the Field, for which he became the first. (modern). With his status as a power player, Poitierhelped launch First Artists and returned as his Heat of the Night character (now working out of San Francisco) in They Call Me Mister Tibbs! His death was announced on Friday by the minister of foreign affairs of the Bahamas, Fred Mitchell. For instance, in 1966, he turned down an opportunity to play the lead in an NBC television production of Othello with that spirit in mind. Can I get you a chair?, In fact, there was something stirring in Poitier in those days. 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Poitier continued to win plaudits: he played a dock worker who mentors John Cassavetes drifter in Edge of the City, and then secured an groundbreaking Oscar nomination as best actor for The Defiant Ones, the Stanley Kramer message movie about social cooperation in which he played a convict who escapes in the deep south while shackled to Tony Curtis. Hollywood legend Sir Sidney Poitier has died aged 94. And there were none, he later told Larry King. . A rep for Poitier did not immediately return Page Sixs request for comment. In 1975, he appeared in the first film to take a stance against apartheid, The Wilby Conspiracy. And for 1969s The Lost Man, he demanded that at least half of the film crew be Black, the first time such a thing had ever been done. [57], In Stanley Kramer's social drama Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Poitier played a man in a relationship with a White woman played by Katharine Houghton. I'll always be following in your footsteps. We have lost an icon; a hero, a mentor, a fighter, a national treasure, he added. Poitier was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Even in 1967, Tibbs willingness to defiantly stand proud in the face of racial animosity was shocking to white audiences. He was 94. Bo Goldman Dead: Cuckoo's Nest, Melvin and Howard Screenwriter Was 90 Poitier . He modeled his legendary speech pattern after radio personality Norman Brokenshire. [161], Powers, Philip, "Sidney Poitier Black and White", 1M1 Digital, Sydney, 2020, p.210. [94], In 1988, he starred in Shoot to Kill with Tom Berenger. 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Sidney Poitier, First Black Man to Win Best Actor Oscar and a Titan of I began to fold the paper and put it into the street bin for trash and something on the opposite page caught my eye. "[79] To win his role as Dr. Prentice in the film, Poitier had to audition for Tracy and Hepburn at two separate dinner parties. Having been knighted in 1974 (due to his Bahamian citizenship), he was appointed Bahamas ambassador to Japan in 1997 and received an honorary Oscar in 2002. On television, Poitier played Nelson Mandela in the 1997 Showtime telefilm Mandela and de Klerk and narrated the documentary Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001). [151][148] The New York Times noted that Poitier was "an ambassador to white America and a benign emblem of Black power". His struggles with Alzheimers dementia were not as publicly known. [147][148][149] The New York Times noted after his death, that Poitier was instrumental for the diversity of Hollywood and "paved the way for Black actors in film". 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. According to documents obtained by TMZ, the. The "A Raisin in the Sun". I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness., Poitier was born two and a half months premature, on Feb. 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida, where his Bahamian parents were vacationing at the time. [54][55] The film landed eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor nominations for both stars, making Poitier the first Black male actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award as best actor. Golden Globes, Critics, Guild and Indi Honors", Berkley Publishing Group, p. 761. The actor, who was married to wife Joanna Shimkus, was also dad to six daughters: Beverly, Pamela,. Barack Obama posted a photo of himself with Poitier, writing: Through his groundbreaking roles and singular talent, Sidney Poitier epitomized dignity and grace, revealing the power of movies to bring us closer together. Poitier was 94 years old. The certificate, issued by Los Angeles County, noted that Poitier's career as an actor spanned 76 years. "[75] Roger Ebert placed it at number ten on his top ten list of 1967 films. In 1961s Paris Blues, he played the first Black romantic lead in a major picture. The death was reported to the coroners office, but a biopsy and autopsy were not performed, the record stated. Subscribe for full access to The Hollywood Reporter.