Posted on 01/07/2022 7:32:35 AM PST by Borges
Sidney Poitier, a Bahamian-American actor who became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1963 film "Lilies of the Field," has died. He was 94.
News of the legendary actor and filmmaker’s death was confirmed to FOX News on Friday by the Bahamas Foreign Affairs' office.
Poitier, who was born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, was the son of tomato farmers before launching a career that went from small, hard-won theater parts to eventual Hollywood stardom. Poitier received acclaim for several films, including "A Raisin in the Sun," "Porgy and Bess" and "A Patch of Blue."
In 2009, he received the Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, from former President Barack Obama. The White House at the time noted his work as a "groundbreaking actor, becoming the top Black movie star in the 1950s and 1960s."
"Poitier insisted that the film crew on The Lost Man be at least 50 percent African American, and starred in the first mainstream movies portraying ‘acceptable’ interracial marriages and interracial kissing. Poitier began his acting career without any training or experience by auditioning at the American Negro Theatre," it said in the 2009 statement.
Arizona State University’s new film school, The Sidney Poitier New American Film School, was named after him in early 2021. The university did not make Poitier, who had remained out of the public eye for some time, available for an interview. But his daughter Beverly Poitier-Henderson told The Associated Press at the time that her father was "doing well and enjoying his family," and considered it an honor to be the namesake of the new film school.
““It seems to me he was obsessed with his skin color…50 % black film crew..”
Relax, he didn’t Burn, Loot, Murder. He was a positive force.”
Yes, He did more for blacks than all of the organizations, screaming, whining, protests and hostility put together.
Lillies and the Bedford could have easily been cast with white characters. He was that good. Then there’s Defiant Ones. They picked the right black actor. As I understand Tony Curtis spoke out and got him equal billing.
He did some comedy films with Bill Cosby back in the 70’s that were entertaining. A sign of a great actor is someone who can do comedy and drama with equal brilliance.
Exactly
I have no, ZERO issue with the color of one’s skin or last name, or ostensible religion (or lack thereof).
But there are a whole bunch of cultures, and subcultures, I unabashedly regard as inferior to that which I was raised in here in America of the last half of the 20th century.
In other words....the brainwashing many of Poitiers race theme movies pimped
Worked.
It was never about skin color
People wary of blacks are wary of their collective behavior
Which should be self evident to anyone who glances with an empirical eye at the world ....and I mean the whole world not just here
Whites who act poorly are viewed with the same disdain
Poitier was great at one dimension.....
His facial expression rarely changed
Mad at Hamish
Indignant Mr Pipps
Same look
I never even heard him even mention politics.
He did some comedy films with Bill Cosby back in the 70’s that were entertaining. A sign of a great actor is someone who can do comedy and drama with equal brilliance.
I thought you were saying the movie ‘Patch of Blue’ wasn’t about color. You re right in regards to people believing that race relations are all about color, they are not, they involve mainly cultural differences, or as you expressed it, ‘group behavior.’
One reason Poitier was so popular I believe was because he was so unlike the typical person’s experience of blacks.
It was watching him in Lilies of the Field, everything about him, how he moved, how he filled the screen, that I whispered to myself “Now, THAT is a movie star!!”
Saw him at an airport once. Seemed nice. Signed autographs with a smile.
Edge of the City! boy i would love to see that again!
94? Sounds like a great run.
He spoke well....Bahamian raised
Agree
He spent many hours weaning himself from a “Bahamian” accent to a more acceptable (for movie roles) American accent, by listening to the radio broadcasts from the USA.
You can still hear it
Like I said he played himself reading lines
John Wayne
Sam Elliot
Robert deNiro
Plenty actors do that
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