Sidney Poitier, Barrier-Breaking Actor, Dies At 94

Sidney Poitier, the actor who broke racial barriers in Hollywood, passed away at the age of 94.

A Rise To Prominence: Sidney Poitier was born Feb. 27, 1927, in Miami, the youngest of seven children born to Bahamian tomato farmers who were visiting Florida when he was born prematurely. He was raised in the Bahamas until he was 15, when he moved to Miami to live with family members. He moved to New York City at 16 and worked as a dishwater while learning to read and to working to lose his Bahamian accent.

After a brief period of the service in the U.S. Army, Poitier successfully auditioned for New York’s American Negro Theater. He made his Broadway debut in the 1949 production of “Lysistrata” and was noticed by 20th Century Fox, which cast him as Black doctor treating a White racist criminal in the drama “No Way Out.”

During the 1950s, Poitier carefully steered clear of stereotypical and often demeaning parts that limited Black actors of the era and secured a series of memorable supporting roles. He played a minister in the 1951 “Cry, the Beloved Country,” a high school delinquent in “Blackboard Jungle” (1955) and Clark Gable’s illegitimate mixed-race son in the Civil War-era epic “Band of Angels” (1958).

Poitier enjoyed his first career breakthrough playing an escaped convict in “The Defiant Ones” (1958), which earned him an Academy Award nomination. This marked the first time a Black performer was nominated in the Best Actor category. After starring opposite Dorothy Dandridge in the 1959 “Porgy and Bess,” Poitier returned to Broadway to headline the production of “A Raisin in the Sun” — he repeated the role in the 1961 film version.

Film Superstar: In the 1960s, Poitier gained a degree of audience prominence uncommon for Black actors. He made history in winning the Best Actor Academy Award for the 1963 “Lillies of the Field,” and in 1967 he was the first Black star top the box office charts with three mega-hits: “In the Heat of the Night,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “To Sir, With Love.”

Also in the 1960s, Poitier used his celebrity status to advocate for civil rights, and he was a confidant to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

In the 1970s, Poitier began directing and showed great versatility in helming such diverse productions as the Western “Buck and the Preacher” (1972), the romantic drama “A Warm December” (1973) and zany comedies including “Uptown Saturday Night” (1974) and “Stir Crazy” (1980).

Poitier withdrew from acting in 1977 after “A Piece of the Action,” which he also directed, and was absent from the screen until he appeared in “Shoot to Kill” (1988). He made occasional appearances in the 1990s, and his final film work in the 2000s involved the narration of documentaries.

See Also: Betty White, Iconic Actress, Dies At 99

Legacy: Poitier received numerous honors for his career, including the American Film Industry Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992, a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995, an Honorary Academy Award in 2003 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

“As I entered this world, I would leave behind the nurturing of my family and my home, but in another sense I would take their protection with me,” he said in his autobiography “Measure of a Man.” “The lessons I had learned, the feelings of groundedness and belonging that have been woven into my character there, would be my companions on the journey.”

Photo: Sidney Poitier in "To Sir, With Love" (1967). Photo courtesy of Columbia Pictures.