Sidney Poitier Transformed Hollywood Forever

Sidney Poitier, one of the most groundbreaking actors and filmmakers of all time, has died at 94.

Poitier is best known for being the first black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. What he will be remembered for is changing Hollywood for the better, forever. 

An Unexpected Miracle

Poitier was born prematurely in Miami while his family was visiting from their farm on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He was so small he could fit in the palm of his father’s hand. He was not expected to survive, and yet…

When Poitier was 10, his family moved to Nassau. At 15, he was sent to live with his brother’s family in Miami. At 16, he moved to New York City where he worked as a dishwasher and joined the army. 

After being discharged from the army, Poitiet landed a role in an American Negro Theater production. 

A Rising Star

Poitier began to score roles that allowed him to stand out for his commanding presence. He worked with legends like Ginger Rogers and James Stewart. He earned his first Academy Award nomination starring alongside Tony Curtis in Stanley Kramer’s The Defiant Ones. 

A performance alongside Ruby Dee in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway landed Poitier rave reviews. He later starred in the first film adaptation of the critically acclaimed stage play. 

In 1963, he starred in Lillies of the Field, a film about a black handyman who reluctantly helps a group of East German nuns. Poitier’s performance allowed him to make history as the first black man to win the Oscar for Best Actor. 

“They Call Me Mister Tibbs”

By 1967, Sidney Poitier was a top box office draw. The films To Sir With Love, Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, and In The Heat of the Night were all released the same year to much success. 

It was his performance as Virgil Tibbs in In The Heat of the Night that featured one Hollywood’s most iconic scenes: 

The scene had originally called for the character Tibbs to take the slap and walk away. Poitier refused to perform it that way. Instead, he insisted that Tibbs slap the character back. He even had his contract rewritten so that the studio could not edit it out. 

“That kind of a scene, which would have been electrifying on the screen, was either avoided, not thought of…

“And I insisted that if they wished my participation in the film. That they would have to re-write it to exemplify that.” 

From Actor To Director

Despite his groundbreaking roles and history-making performances, Poitier experienced brief backlash. Film critic Elvis Mitchell said:

“He suddenly went from being the lone representation of his race to being unfairly castigated as the man who apologized for being Black.

“And he was just working, he wasn’t in control of the movie business, he didn’t choose to make the movies. He chose to be in them, because he just wanted to work.” 

Poitier changed course by turning to directing. His best-known films are Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again, For the Love of Ivy, Buck and the Preacher, and Stir Crazy – his most successful. 

Awards and Accolades

In 2002, at nearly 75-years-old, Sidney Poitier received an honorary Oscar for his lifetime achievement. 

“I accept this award in memory of all the African-American actors and actresses who went before me in the difficult years, on whose shoulders I was privileged to stand to see where I might go.”

That same night, Halle Berry became the first black woman to win the Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 2009, President Barack Obama awarded Sidney Poitier the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States. 

Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino spoke his praises in 2011:

“In the history of movies, there’ve only been a few actors who, once they gained recognition, their influence forever changed the art form.

“There’s a time before their arrival, and there’s a time after their arrival. And after their arrival, nothing’s ever going to be the same again.

“As far as movies are concerned, there was Hollywood pre-Poitier, and there was Hollywood post-Poitier.”