BEST SIDNEY POITIER MOVIES
“Blackboard Jungle” (1955):
Since he later would play one of the screen’s most famous educators, it’s ironic that Poitier had one of his first hits playing a student in this tense classroom tale.
“The Defiant Ones” (1958):
Poitier and Tony Curtis convey appropriate fury as literally linked chain-gang fugitives in director Stanley Kramer’s racially blistering drama.
“A Raisin in the Sun” (1961):
Poitier rises to the occasion, as do his co-stars, in the adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s classic play about a family’s sudden windfall.
“Lilies of the Field” (1963):
Poitier became the first African-American to win the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of a handyman who reluctantly helps a group of nuns build a chapel.
“A Patch of Blue” (1965):
Poitier and Elizabeth Hartman are heartbreakingly wonderful in this drama of a blind woman and the man who befriends her.
“The Slender Thread” (1965):
Sydney Pollack (“Out of Africa”) made his feature-film directing debut with this tense tale of a crisis center worker’s (Poitier) attempt to save a suicidal woman (Anne Bancroft) via telephone.
“Duel at Diablo” (1966):
Poitier reunited with “Lilies of the Field” director Ralph Nelson on this notably mature and gritty Western, also starring James Garner.
“To Sir, With Love” (1967):
Poitier had a hit-after-hit movie year that started with his memorable portrayal of a novice teacher dealing with a classroom of London toughs.
“In the Heat of the Night” (1967):
The screen truly sizzled from the teaming of Poitier and Rod Steiger as lawmen with very different methodologies in this Oscar-winning crime drama. Turner Classic Movies shows the film Wednesday, July 26, as part of the concluding night of its “The South on Film” series.
“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967):
Capping a year that any performer would cherish having, Poitier worked with screen legends Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in this comedy-drama about an interracial marriage-to-be. Katharine Houghton, Hepburn’s niece, played the intended bride.
“For Love of Ivy” (1968):
Though it often isn’t included on lists of his prime projects, this comedy-drama features a wonderfully romantic Poitier as a suitor enlisted to help a family keep their highly valued maid (Abbey Lincoln).
“Uptown Saturday Night” (1974):
Poitier began a series of successful “buddy comedies” as both director and — with Bill Cosby and Harry Belafonte — star of this high-spirited story of the race to recover a stolen winning lottery ticket.
“Stir Crazy” (1980):
If you don’t remember Poitier appearing in this prison comedy, he didn’t; instead, he put Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor through their paces as the film’s director.
“Shoot to Kill” (1988):
Drawing on his authority and sheer star power, Poitier is effective as an FBI agent who relies on a tracker (Tom Berenger) to find a lethal villain in the Canadian-American wilderness.