Legendary actor Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, has died, the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed to Insider.
He was 94.
Poitier was a trailblazing Bahamian American actor who — along with a career filled with landmark acting, directing, and producing roles — was also a voice for civil rights in the 1960s and an ambassador for his beloved home country of the Bahamas.
Poitier’s work in Hollywood may have led to groundbreaking and iconic performances, but it didn’t start out easy for him.
At 16, he moved to New York City and mostly found work as a dishwasher. In November 1943, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Army to fight in World War II. After leaving the Army a year later, he landed a spot at the American Negro Theatre. There he would meet a lifelong friend, fellow upcoming actor Harry Belafonte.
Struggling to connect with audiences because of his Bahamian accent, Poitier dedicated himself to the acting craft. For six months he refined his skills, which led to roles on Broadway.
Hollywood soon came calling, and he landed the role of a doctor treating a bigot in the 1950 movie “No Way Out.” In 1955, Poitier gave a breakout performance as one of the unruly kids in “Blackboard Jungle.”
Three years later, he starred opposite Tony Curtis in “The Defiant Ones.” The pair played escaped prisoners who are chained together. The movie was a commercial and critical success, showcasing Poitier’s raw talent. The movie earned both Poitier and Curtis Oscar nominations and a Best Picture nod for the movie.
Poitier’s nomination marked the first time that a Black man was nominated in the Best Actor category.
He made even more history when he became the first Black actor to win in the category for his performance in 1963’s “Lilies of the Field.” He played a handyman who encounters a group of nuns who believe he was sent to them by God to build them a new chapel.
He and Harry Belafonte were major fixtures during the civil-rights movement
As the most prominent Black actor in Hollywood at the time, Poitier used his fame to fight for change.
He became a voice for the civil-rights movement alongside Belafonte.
n the early 1960s, Belafonte persuaded Poitier to drive to the South with $70,000 to give to the Freedom Summer volunteers. The experience changed Poitier’s life as the two actors were chased by Klansmen who fired guns at them, The New York Times reported.
The two also helped organize the landmark March on Washington in 1963, which featured Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
A year before King’s assassination, the civil-rights icon said of Poitier: “He is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom. Here is a man who, in the words we so often hear now, is a soul brother.”
In 1967, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” found him playing a Black man who meets his white girlfriend’s parents (played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn). He also starred in the crime thriller “In the Heat of the Night,” in which he played Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia detective who investigates a murder in a Southern town.
Poitier went on to play Tibbs in two sequels: “They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!” (1970) and “The Organization” (1971).
Into the 1970s, Poitier turned to directing, producing hits such as “Uptown Saturday Night” (1974) and “A Piece of the Action” (1977), both starring Bill Cosby. In 1980, he directed “Stir Crazy,” starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder.
