Sidney Poitier–In Memoriam
The world recently lost one of the greatest entertainers in our history–Sidney Poitier. ATVN’s own Artie Freeman shares his insights and opinions on this legendary performer and activist, in this week’s edition of The Showplace.
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January 6th, 2022 marked the passing of Sidney Poitier, a true legend and pioneer. Poitier was one of the last major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living and earliest Best Actor Oscar winner. There was literally no one alive who had won the Best Actor Academy Award before him.
Poitier’s family lived in the Bahamas, at the time a British colony. He was born in Miami while his family was visiting, making him an American citizen. He grew up in the Bahamas and moved to Miami at the age of 15 to live with his brother, Cyril. He found life in the south to be intolerable due to the Jim Crow Laws accompanied with racism. When he was 16, he moved to New York City to pursue a career in acting.
He joined the American Negro Theatre and trained himself to shed his Bahamian accent. In 1950 he got his big break playing a doctor in the racially charged film, No Way Out. After a strong performance in this film, it was hard not to notice his stage presence and extraordinary talent.
In 1958, Poitier co-starred with Tony Curtis as escaped convicts who were chained together in The Defiant Ones, which received nine Academy Award nominations. He and Curtis each received a nomination for Best Actor, with Poitier’s nomination being the first for a black actor.
It’s important to remember that Hollywood back then was filled with many white racists who only wanted to depict black people in subservient roles. There were, however, some decent white people who carried some weight and believed in racial equality. Tony Curtis was one of those people. For The Defiant Ones, he requested that Poitier’s name appear alongside his on the movie poster receiving equal billing.
In 1964, Poitier won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field. Although Sidney won the greatest honors for an actor, he felt they were given to him to make Hollywood look good for having a token black. It’s too bad that he couldn’t enjoy his accolades, because he really did deserve the awards.
1967 was an amazing year for Poitier; he made three films dealing with racial issues. In each film, he portrayed an intelligent and authoritative character: In To Sir, with Love he was a teacher, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner as a doctor, and In the Heat of the Night as a police detective. He reprised the role of Virgil Tibbs from In the Heat of the Night in two sequels, They Call Me Mr. Tibbs and The Organization. That same year he became the first black actor to place his autograph, hand, and footprints in the cement at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre.
In 1969 he starred in The Lost Man and he insisted that the film crew consist of fifty percent black people. That was a bold move. Many people would not jeopardize their livelihood for their convictions.
In the 1970s, Poitier successfully teamed up with Bill Cosby in three “buddy” films displaying his comical side. These films were Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again, and A Piece of the Action. He also directed these films and his brother Cyril had bit parts in each. In 1980 he directed, in my opinion, the funniest buddy film ever made, Stir Crazy. This was first film pairing Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. Stir Crazy went on to become the highest grossing film directed by a black filmmaker until Scary Movie in 2000.
In 1982, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1995, he received the Kennedy Center Honor. From 1997 to 2007, he was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan.
In 1999, he ranked 22nd among 25 male actors on the “100 Years…100 Stars” list by the American Film Institute. This is a list of the 50 greatest screen legends: ranking the top 25 male and 25 female greatest screen legends of American film history. Sadly, out of these 50 legends he is the only person of color to grace this list.
In 2002, Poitier received an Academy Honorary Award, in recognition of his accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.
In 2009 President Obama awarded Poitier the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States’ highest honor for a civilian.
Sidney Poitier lived a full life with grace and dignity while demanding respect both on-screen and off. In the near future, we will air one of Sidney’s movies, Mark of the Hawk, on the ATVN Movie Vault, with me as your host.
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Be on the lookout for more contributions and insights from Artie Freeman in future blog “Showplace” posts. Artie provides great introductions to many of the classic movies airing weekly on ATVN and also hosts our “Take 5” interviews featuring unique people in our viewing area.
The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Astound Broadband or any other agency, organization, employer or company.