Poitier biography
•
Sidney Poitier
(1927-2022)
Who Was Sidney Poitier?
After a delinquency-filled youth and a short stint in the U.S. Army, Sidney Poitier moved to New York to pursue an acting career. He joined the American Negro Theater and later began finding roles in Hollywood. Following his performance in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field, he became the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. He also directed several films, including Buck and the Preacher and Stir Crazy. The acclaimed actor was knighted in 1974 and honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Early Years in Miami and the Bahamas
Sidney Poitier was born on February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. He arrived two and a half months prematurely while his Bahamian parents were on vacation in Miami. As soon as he was strong enough, Poitier left the United States with his parents for the Bahamas. There, Poitier spent his early years on his father's tomato farm on Cat Island. After the farm fail
•
Sidney Poitier
Actor, film director, civil rights activist, author, ambassador, father—Sir Sidney Poitier was a groundbreaking international film icon whose life, both onscreen and off, stood as an example of strength, passion, depth and integrity.
Over the course of his long and varied career, Poitier starred in more than 40 films, directed nine, and wrote four. His many memorable roles as an actor include “The Defiant Ones,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “A Patch of Blue,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “In the Heat of the Night,” “To Sir, With Love,” and “Sneakers.” For his outstanding performance in “Lilies of the Field,” a 1963 film set and shot in Arizona, Poitier became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Among many other accolades, Poitier was honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the American Film Institute’s Life Achievement Award, the Screen Actors Guild’s Life Achievement Award, a Kennedy Center Honors Award, an NAACP Image Aw
•
Sidney Poitier
Bahamian-American actor, filmmaker, diplomat (1927–2022)
For his daughter, the actress, see Sydney Tamiia Poitier.
Sidney Poitier (PWAH-tyay;[1] February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, rulle director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.[2] He received two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award, and a Grammy Award as well as nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. In 1999, he was ranked among the "American bio Institute's 100 Stars".[3][4] Poitier was one of the last surviving stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.[5][6][7]
Poitier's family lived in the Bahamas, then still a Crown colony, but he was born in Miami, Florida, while they were visiting, which automatically granted him U.S. citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, but moved to Miami at ag