“If I’m remembered for having done a few good things, and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that’s plenty.”
First African-American actor to have won the Academy Award for Best Actor and be nominated for it.
Sidney Poitier was a highly acclaimed actor when he was alive. His diligent work allowed him to acquire many awards in his career.
His early career involved him working to support himself at a young age. He attempted to audition for Harlem’s American Negro Theater but was rejected for his lack of reading skills and Caribbean accent. The rejection only encouraged him to improve his reading skills and alter his accent.
He later worked there as an unpaid janitor at the Theater in trade for taking classes. Poitier’s personality was admired by producers and a Broadway director, who offered him a role in “Lysistrata.” He would later go on tour with the touring company of Anna Lucasta. He was able to gain a family of African American actors from this experience.
Poitier soon made his feature film debut in the 1950 movie “No Way Out.” An African-American man was normally presented to be servants or entertainers during this time period, however, he had a leading role as a doctor in a racist town.
His role stirred excitement in the community for not being portrayed in a demeaning light. As he kept working in more movies he soon became the first black man to be accepted in American movies.
In the 1960s Poitier was in yet another successful movie, “A Patch of Blue,” which broke a box office record in Atlanta, Georgia.
1967 was his most successful year with the release of three of his most well-received films “To Sir With Love,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” and “In the Heat of the Night.” “In the Heat of the Night” won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Shari Griswold, English Department, remembers watching Poitier in his prime and commented, “Sydney Poitier was a fantastic actor. I loved him in “Blackboard Jungle”, but especially in “A Patch of Blue and To Sir, with Love”. I don’t know many girls who didn’t have a crush on him after “To Sir, with Love!” His charm. His voice. His quiet pride that was never arrogant. The world lost a wonderful actor and a true gentleman when Sydney Poitier died in 2022.”
President Barack Obama awarded Poitier America’s highest civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom on August 12, 2009. That same year he earned the Lincoln Medal which is gifted to those who have had high achievements in their field of work by President Obama.
