Sidney Poitier

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Not to be confused with Sydney Tamiia Poitier.
Sidney Poitier
Image:Poitier Belafonte Heston Civil Rights March 1963.jpg
Sidney Poitier (left) with Harry Belafonte (center) and Charlton Heston (right) at the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C
Born February 20 1927 (1927-02-20) (age 82)
at sea, recorded in Miami, Florida, but possibly born in Bahamas
Spouse(s) Juanita Hardy (1950-1965)
Joanna Shimkus (1976-)

Sir Sidney Poitier KBE, (pronounced /ˈpwɑːtieɪ/) (born February 20 1927), is an Academy Award-winning Bahamian American actor, film director, and activist. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by consciously defying racial stereotyping, gave a new dramatic credibility for black actors to mainstream film audiences in the Western world.

In 1963, Poitier became the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor - for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later compounded in 1967 when he starred in three very well received films - To Sir, With Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - making him the top box office star of that year. [1]

Poitier has also directed a number of popular movies such as Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), and Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder). In 2002, 38 years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive the Honorary Award in recognition of his "extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence."[2]

Contents

[edit] Early life and acting career

By Poitier's own account, he was born in The Bahamas and later moved to the United States. He related this description of events after accepting an award. By other accounts, he was born at sea en route to Miami, Florida, where his Bahamian parents traveled to sell tomatoes and other produce from their farm on tiny Cat Island. Poitier was born prematurely and was not originally expected to survive the boat ride; his birth was recorded in Miami (though he may not have been born there), as the vessel was already closer to Florida. He spent his early years on remote Cat Island, which had a population of 4,000 and no electricity.

During his early teenage years, Poitier traveled to Nassau with his family. As he got older, he displayed an increasing inclination toward juvenile delinquency. At the age of 15, his parents shipped him off to Miami to live with his older brother. At age 17, Poitier moved to New York City and held a string of menial jobs. During this time, he was arrested for vagrancy after being thrown out of his housing complex for not paying rent, and decided to join the United States Army. He then tried his hand at the American Negro Theater, where he was handily rejected by audiences. Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which he got excellent reviews. By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance in No Way Out as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and prominent than most black actors of the time were getting, though still less so than those white actors routinely obtained.

In Hollywood, Poitier made many memorable movies. His breakout role was as a member of an incorrigible high school class in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle (although, like most of the actors in the film, he was not a teenager, and was in fact aged 27).

He was the first male black actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award (for The Defiant Ones, 1958), and also the first to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963). (James Baskett was the first to receive an Oscar, an Honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus in the Walt Disney production of Song of the South in 1948).

He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident (1965), A Patch of Blue (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967); and To Sir, with Love (1967). Poitier was also memorable as Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania detective in the hit 1967 movie In the Heat of the Night and its two sequels: They Call Me Mister Tibbs (1970) and The Organization (1971).

[edit] Directorial career

Poitier has directed several films, the most successful being the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, which for years was the highest grossing film directed by a person of African descent. His feature film directorial debut was the western Buck and the Preacher in which Poitier also starred in alongside Harry Belafonte. Poitier replaced original director Joseph Sargent. The trio of Poitier, Cosby, and Belafonte reunited again (with Poitier again directing) in Uptown Saturday Night. Poitier also directed Cosby in Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad.

[edit] Personal life

Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29 1950 until 1965.[citation needed] He has been married to Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian-born former actress of Lithuanian descent, since January 23 1976. He has four children by his first marriage and two children by his second marriage, all girls. His fifth daughter is actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

He has written two autobiographical books, This Life (1980) and The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000). In January 2007, the latter became an Oprah's Book Club selection.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Actor

[edit] Director

[edit] Television

  • Separate but Equal (1991)
  • Children of the Dust (1995)
  • To Sir, with Love II (1996)
  • Mandela and De Klerk (1997)
  • David and Lisa (1998)
  • The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (1999)
  • The Last Bricklayer in America (2001)

[edit] Awards and recognition

Awards
Preceded by
Henry Fonda
for 12 Angry Men 		BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role
1958
for The Defiant Ones 		Succeeded by
Jack Lemmon
for Some Like It Hot
Preceded by
Gregory Peck
for To Kill a Mockingbird 		Academy Award for Best Actor
1963
for Lilies of the Field 		Succeeded by
Rex Harrison
for My Fair Lady
Preceded by
Gregory Peck
for To Kill a Mockingbird 		Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Drama
1964
for Lilies of the Field 		Succeeded by
Peter O'Toole
for Becket
Preceded by
Gene Kelly 		Cecil B. DeMille Award
1982 		Succeeded by
Laurence Olivier
Preceded by
Kirk Douglas 		AFI Life Achievement Award
1992 		Succeeded by
Elizabeth Taylor
Preceded by
Jack Cardiff, Ernest Lehman 		Academy Honorary Award
2002
with Robert Redford 		Succeeded by
Peter O'Toole

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/RefArticle.aspx?refid=761579379
  2. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Honorary_Award

[edit] External links

es:Sidney Poitier fa:سیدنی پوآتیه fr:Sidney Poitier io:Sidney Poitier id:Sidney Poitier it:Sidney Poitier he:סידני פואטייה nl:Sidney Poitier ja:シドニー・ポワチエ no:Sidney Poitier nn:Sidney Poitier oc:Sidney Poitier pl:Sidney Poitier pt:Sidney Poitier ru:Пуатье, Сидни sr:Сидни Поатје fi:Sidney Poitier sv:Sidney Poitier

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