SIDNEY POITIER
They call him Mister Poitier…
Born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, Poitier learned his trade at the American Negro Theatre in Harlem before making an eye-catching debut opposite Richard Widmark in 1950’s No Way Out. Playing a disruptive pupil in Blackboard Jungle opened more doors, leading to his Bafta-winning turn in The Defiant Ones and his Oscar-grabbing role in Lilies Of The Field. He remained the first and only black Best Actor winner for 38 years.
The triple whammy of In The Heat Of The Night, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner and To Sir, With Love saw Poitier crowned the top box-office star of 1967. Yet his choice of roles saw him unfairly and racistly labelled an “ebony saint” by critics who viewed his virtuous characters as whiteappeasing stereotypes. “My work is who I am,” the actor declared, though he was sufficiently stung to pursue less noble parts.
The ’70s saw Poitier branch out into directing, most notably with a trio of crowd-pleasing comedies (Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again and A Piece Of The Action) that partnered him with Bill Cosby. Stir Crazy (1980) was the first film with an African-American director to gross more than $100m at the US box-office.
After 11 years off the screen, Poitier returned in 1988’s Deadly Pursuit (aka Shoot To Kill) as an FBI vet pursuing a killer through the great outdoors. Little Nikita and Sneakers confirmed his aptitude for avuncular authority figures, while 1997’s Mandela And De Klerk reunited him with Wilby Conspiracy costar Michael Caine. A sort of Apartheid Defiant Ones, the 1975 release continued a link to South Africa that began with 1951’s Cry, The Beloved Country.
Celebrated throughout his life as a trailblazing pioneer, Poitier was inundated with honours in his later years: an honorary lifetimeachievement Oscar in 2002, a Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009 and a Bafta fellowship in 2016. “It was my job to walk from one film to another with a sense I had to reach beyond,” he mused that year. “I was fortunate I could reach the level people wanted me to try for.” NS