Celebrity Biographies
sidney poitier
A great performer, he became an important figure by breaking new ground for black actors and breaking stereotypes in Hollywood. She represents the films that reflected that something was changing in a society willing to move forward to banish racism. Sidney Potier, the first African American to win the Best Actor Oscar for “Lilies of the Valley,” died on January 7, 2022, in Los Angeles.
Born on February 20, 1927 in Miami (Florida), into a family of Haitian descent, Sidney Poitier spent his childhood on Cat Island, in the Bahamas, where his parents grew tomatoes. But it was a place marked by poverty and crime, so his childhood was hard. At the age of 15, his parents decided to send him with his older brother Cyril to Miami, where he would have the opportunity to build a better life for himself.
But in Miami, Sidney Poitier felt for the first time a victim of racism, unknown to him, because until then he had hardly left his island, where the entire population was black. To escape discrimination, he ended up settling in New York, where the environment was more open, and he managed to get by with humble jobs.
After World War II, when he enlisted in the army and was assigned to a military hospital as a corpsman, he decided to become an actor. Demonstrating enormous tenacity, Sidney Poitier managed to get signed by the prestigious American Negro Theater group. After being turned down at the first audition because of his Caribbean accent, Poitier worked hard to improve his diction.
He achieved his first great triumph on the Broadway stage, where he starred in “Lisistrata”, a version with black actors of the Aristophanes tragedy. Her good work caught the attention of Darryl F. Zanuck , one of the great producers of the classic Hollywood era, who hired her for the film about racism A Ray of Light , by Joseph L. Mankiewicz , along with Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell . Her work, as a doctor treating two criminals, earned rave reviews. Since then he has worked as a supporting role in titles such as Promised Land or Go, Man Go , until he filmed the legendary Seed of Evil, prototype of the films about teachers from conflicting institutes. There, Glenn Ford was a teacher willing to do anything to connect with his rebellious students. Sidney Poitier played the one who was considered in spite of him the leader of the boys.
Married to the dancer Juanita Hardy in 1950, with whom he had four daughters, he left her for the blonde Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus (with whom he had filmed The Lost Man ), who gave him two more. One of them, Sydney Tamila Poitier, is also dedicated to acting.
In the 1960s, Sidney Poitier shot numerous successful films, such as A mole in the sun , Life is worth more , Duel in Diablo or Rebellion in the classrooms . He highlights Norman Jewison ‘s In the Heat of the Night , where he played Police Inspector Virgil Tibbs, investigating a murder with the local police chief, in a small southern town scarred by racism. His success led to Poitier repeating the same character in Now they call me Mr. Tibbs and Inspector Tibbs against the organization .
But the most remembered film of Sidney Poitier ‘s extensive career is, without a doubt, Guess Who’s Coming Tonight , Stanley Kramer ‘s delicious comedy , which reflected the changes of the time, in which Poitier played a doctor, the idyllic black boyfriend of a young white woman whose parents (veterans Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn ) feel confused despite her open-mindedness.
In the 70s he began his career as a director with the western Buck and the Faker , followed by titles like A Warm December or Locos de remate , a crazy comedy with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor that swept theaters.
After being retired for a few years, Sidney Poitier returned in the late 1980s with the unsuccessful Spies Without Identity , and played a supporting role in the thriller Los fisgones . Since then he has lavished himself on TV movies. Almost four decades after his Oscar, the Hollywood Academy awarded him the Honorary Award in 2002.