Sidney Poitier has died at 94

[sds71]

Sidney Poitier, a Bahamian-American actor who became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1963 film "Lilies of the Field," has died. He was 94.

News of the legendary actor and filmmaker’s death was confirmed to FOX News on Friday by the Bahamas Foreign Affairs' office.


Poitier, who was born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, was the son of tomato farmers before launching a career that went from small, hard-won theater parts to eventual Hollywood stardom.

Sidney Poitier, Oscar-winning Bahamian-American actor, dies at 94


https://twitter.com/ewnewsbahamas/status/1479459036957495298?s=20

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

Sidney Poitier, trailblazing Hollywood icon who broke barriers for Black actors, dies at 94 (nbcnews.com)

In a groundbreaking film career, Poitier established himself as one of the finest performers in America.

Sidney Poitier, the renowned Hollywood actor, director and activist who commanded the screen, reshaped the culture and paved the way for countless other Black actors with stirring performances in classics such as “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” died, a source close to the family told NBC News on Friday.

He was 94.

...He made history as the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor and, at the height of his fame, he became a major box-office draw.

Poitier, who rejected film roles based on offensive racial stereotypes, earned acclaim for portraying proud, keenly intelligent men in 1960s landmarks such as “Lilies of the Field,” “A Patch of Blue,” “To Sir, With Love,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

He said he felt a responsibility to represent Black excellence at a time when the vast majority of movie stars were white and many Black performers were relegated to subservient or buffoonish roles...

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

I can't think of a Sidney Poitier movie that I don't like, but my favorites are To Sir, With Love and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.

To Sir, with love (1967) - the ending - YouTube

 

[Betty P]

I can't think of a Sidney Poitier movie that I don't like, but my favorites are To Sir, With Love and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.

To Sir, with love (1967) - the ending - YouTube

Those were my favorites, too. Listening to the report about him on CNN, you really get a feel for how difficult it was for him to start his career in acting. He was the first major black star in movies in the US. He handled it well and set a great example for others to follow.

I also admired him for his work with the civil rights movement in the US. He and Harry Belafonte were always out there and it was very dangerous work.

Sidney Poitier was more than just an actor, he was an important figure in U.S. history.

 

[Elley Mae]

I can't think of a Sidney Poitier movie that I don't like, but my favorites are To Sir, With Love and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.

To Sir, with love (1967) - the ending - YouTube

Those and Shot to Kill with Tom Berenger, kirstie alley.

RIP Mr Sidney Poitier

 

[fred&edna]

Great actor. He made such an impression on me when I was young.

 

[sds71]

@TheLeeGrant

Sidney was a force of nature. One of most intelligent, beautiful, and unstoppable human beings I’ve ever known. He made our world, and my life, better in ways we still may not entirely comprehend. Calling him a legend doesn’t do it justice. He was Sidney Poitier.

 

[rosesfromangels]

"Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.”

RIP Mr. Poitier. I know that your path leading to the gates was adorned with lilies.

 

[LadyL]

What an inspiration this man was. RIP Mr. Poitier.

 

[sds71]

https://thehollywoodtimes.today/tcm-to-celebrate-groundbreaking-actor-sidney-poitier/

Turner Classic Movies (TCM) will celebrate the life and career of trailblazing actor, director, and diplomat Sidney Poitier with a programming tribute on Saturday, February 19 and Sunday, February 20. February 20 would have been his 95th birthday.

 

[BetteDavisEyes]

TCM Remembers: Sidney Poitier - Turner Classic Movies

February 19th and 20th / 12 Movies

Movie star myths and “origin stories” often begin with a child of modest background, growing up far from Hollywood, enchanted by film images that grow into an early and inextinguishable dream to one day be a part of the magic. For Sidney Poitier, who died January 6, 2022, at the age of 94, that moment happened after his Bahamian farmer parents moved from their rural island to the country’s capital, Nassau, when he was 10. There he saw his first motion picture, a Western; thinking what he witnessed on screen was a slice of reality, he decided he wanted to go to Hollywood to become a cowboy – not a movie cowboy but the real thing...