Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier | |
---|---|
Born | Miami, Florida, U.S. | February 20, 1927
Citizenship | American |
Occupations |
|
Years active | 1946–2008 |
Spouses |
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Partner | Diahann Carroll (1959–1968) |
Children | 6, including [[Sydney Tamiia Poitgk ier]] |
Military career | |
Allegiance | United States |
Service | United States Army |
Years of service | 1943–1944 |
Rank | Enlisted |
Bahamian Ambassador to Japan | |
In office 1997–2007[1] | |
Sidney Poitier, KBE (/ˈpwɑːtieɪ/; born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian-American actor and film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first black actor to win that award, and was nominated a second time.
In addition, he was nominated six times for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award (BAFTA) for Best Foreign Actor, winning each once. From 1997 to 2007, he served as the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan.[2]
His family lived in the Bahamas, but Poitier was born in Miami while they were visiting, thereby acquiring American citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, moving to New York when he was 16. He joined the North American Negro Theatre, landing his breakthrough film role as an incorrigible high school student in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.
In 1958, Poitier starred with Tony Curtis in the critically acclaimed The Defiant Ones as chained-together convicts who escape and must cooperate. Each received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Poitier's being the first for a black actor, as well as nominations for the BAFTAs, which Poitier won. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor[3][a] for his role in Lilies of the Field (1963) in which he played a handyman who stays with and helps a group of German-speaking nuns build a chapel.[4] Poitier also received critical acclaim for A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and A Patch of Blue (1965).
He continued to break ground in three successful 1967 films, each dealing with issues of race and race relations: To Sir, with Love; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night, making him the top box-office star of that year.[5] He received nominations for the Golden Globes and BAFTAs for the latter film, but not for the Oscars, likely due to vote splitting between his roles. After twice reprising his Virgil Tibbs character from In the Heat of the Night and acting in a variety of other films, including the thriller The Wilby Conspiracy (1975), with Michael Caine, Poiter turned to acting/directing with the action-comedies Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Let's Do It Again (1975), and A Piece of the Action (1978), all co-starring Bill Cosby. During a decade away from acting, he directed the successful Stir Crazy (1980) starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, among other films. He returned to acting in the late 1980s and early 1990s in a few thrillers and television roles.
Poitier received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 1974.[6][7][8][9] In 2009 Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States' highest civilian honor.[10]
In 2016, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding lifetime achievement in film.[9] In 1999, the American Film Institute ranked Poitier 22nd on their list of Greatest Male Stars of classic Hollywood cinema. He is currently the only living actor on the list. In 2002, Poitier was chosen to receive an Academy Honorary Award, in recognition of his "remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."[11]
Early life
Sidney Poitier was the youngest of seven surviving children,[12] born to Evelyn (née Outten) and Reginald James Poitier,[13] Bahamian farmers who owned a farm on Cat Island. The family would travel to Miami to sell tomatoes and other produce. Reginald also worked as a cab driver in Nassau, Bahamas.[14] Poitier was born in Miami while his parents were visiting. His birth was two months premature and he was not expected to survive, but his parents remained in Miami for three months to nurse him to health.[15] Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, then a British Crown colony. Owing to his birth in the United States, he was automatically entitled to American citizenship.[15]
Poitier's uncle believed that the Poitier ancestors on his father's side had migrated from Haiti,[16] and were probably among the runaway slaves who established maroon communities throughout the Bahamas, including Cat Island. He noted that Poitier is a French name, and that there were no white Poitiers from the Bahamas.[17][page needed] However, there had been a white Poitier on Cat Island; the name came from planter Charles Leonard Poitier of English heritage who had immigrated from Jamaica in the early 1800s. In 1834, his wife's estate on Cat Island had 86 slaves—39 men and 47 women. The slaves kept the name Poitier, a name that had been introduced into England during the Norman conquest in the 11th century.[18]
Poitier lived with his family on Cat Island until he was 10, when they moved to Nassau. There he was exposed to the modern world, where he saw his first automobile, first experienced electricity, plumbing, refrigeration, and motion pictures.[19][20] He was raised a Roman Catholic[21] but later became an agnostic[22] with views closer to deism.[23]
At age 15, he was sent to Miami to live with his brother's large family. At 16, he moved to New York City and held a string of jobs as a dishwasher. A waiter sat with him every night for several weeks helping him learn to read the newspaper.[24] In November 1943, he lied about his age and enlisted in the Army during World War II. He was assigned to a Veteran's Administration hospital in Northport, New York, and was trained to work with psychiatric patients. Poitier became upset with how the hospital treated its patients and faked mental illness to obtain a discharge. Poitier confessed to a psychiatrist that he was faking, but the doctor was sympathetic and granted his discharge under Section 8 of Army regulations in December 1944.[25]
After leaving the Army he worked as a dishwasher until a successful audition landed him a spot with the American Negro Theater.[26][27]
Hollywood
Acting
Poitier joined the North American Negro Theater, but was rejected by audiences. Contrary to what was expected of black actors at the time, Poitier's tone deafness made him unable to sing.[28] Determined to refine his acting skills and rid himself of his noticeable Bahamian accent, he spent the next six months dedicating himself to achieving theatrical success. On his second attempt at the theater, he was noticed and given a leading role in the Broadway production Lysistrata, for which, though it ran a failing four days, he received an invitation to understudy for Anna Lucasta.[29]
By late 1949, he had to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance in No Way Out, as a doctor treating a Caucasian bigot (played by Richard Widmark), was noticed and led to more roles, each considerably more interesting and more prominent than those most African-American actors of the time were offered. In 1951, he traveled to South Africa with the African-American actor Canada Lee to star in the film version of Cry, the Beloved Country.[30] Poitier's breakout role was as Gregory W. Miller, a member of an incorrigible high-school class in Blackboard Jungle (1955).[31]
In 1958 he starred alongside Tony Curtis in director Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones. Poitier and Curtis play prisoners chained-together who escape custody when the truck transporting them crashes and to avoid re-capture they must work cooperatively despite their mutual dislike. The film was a critical and commercial success with the performances of both Poitier and Curtis being praised.[32][33] The film landed eight Academy Award nominations including Best Picture and Best Actor nominations for both stars, making Poitier the first black male actor to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award as best actor. Both actors received the same nomination at the Golden Globes, but likely due to vote splitting between the two of them, neither won either award. Poitier did win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Award for Best Foreign Actor and the Berlin Film Festival's Silver Bear Award.
He was also the first black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963). (James Baskett was the first African-American male to receive an Oscar, an Honorary Academy Award for his performance as Uncle Remus in the Walt Disney production of Song of the South in 1948, while Hattie McDaniel predated them both, winning as Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1939's Gone with the Wind, making her the first black person to be nominated for and receive an Oscar). His satisfaction at this honor was undermined by his concerns that this award was more of the industry congratulating itself for having him as a token and it would inhibit him from asking for more substantive considerations afterward.[34] Poitier worked relatively little over the following year; he remained the only major actor of African descent and the roles offered were predominantly typecast as a soft-spoken appeaser.[35]
He acted in the first production of A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway in 1959, and later starred in the film version released in 1961. He also gave memorable performances in The Bedford Incident (1965), and A Patch of Blue (1965) co-starring Elizabeth Hartman and Shelley Winters. In 1967, he was the most successful draw at the box office, the commercial peak of his career, with three popular films, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner; To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night. The last film featured his most successful character, Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, detective whose subsequent career was the subject of two sequels: They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970) and The Organization (1971). Many of the films in which Poitier starred during the 1960s would later be cited as social thrillers by both filmmakers and critics.[36][37][38][39]
Poitier began to be criticized for being typecast as over-idealized African-American characters who were not permitted to have any sexuality or personality faults, such as his character in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner. Poitier was aware of this pattern himself, but was conflicted on the matter. He wanted more varied roles; but he also felt obliged to set an example with his characters, by challenging old stereotypes as he was the only major actor of African descent being cast in leading roles in the American film industry, at that time. For instance, in 1966, he turned down an opportunity to play the lead in an NBC television production of Othello with that spirit in mind.[40]
In 2002, Poitier received the 2001 Honorary Academy Award for his overall contribution to American cinema. Later in the ceremony, Denzel Washington won the award for Best Actor for his performance in Training Day becoming the second black actor to win the award. In his victory speech Washington saluted Poitier by saying "I'll always be chasing you, Sidney. "I'll always be following in your footsteps. There's nothing I would rather do, sir."[41]
With the death of Ernest Borgnine, in 2012, he became the oldest living man to have won the Academy Award for Best Actor.[42] On March 2, 2014, Poitier appeared with Angelina Jolie at the 86th Academy Awards, to present the Best Director Award. He was given a standing ovation. Jolie thanked him for all his Hollywood contributions, stating "we are in your debt". Poitier gave a brief acceptance speech, telling his peers to "keep up the wonderful work" to warm applause.
Directing
Poitier directed several films, the most successful being the Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, which for many years was the highest-grossing film directed by a person of African descent.[43] His feature film directorial debut was the Western, Buck and the Preacher, in which Poitier also starred, alongside Harry Belafonte. Poitier replaced the original director, Joseph Sargent. The trio of Poitier, Cosby, and Belafonte reunited, with Poitier again directing, in Uptown Saturday Night. He directed Cosby in Let's Do It Again, A Piece of the Action, and Ghost Dad. Poitier directed the first popular dance battle movie, Fast Forward, in 1985.
Recording
Poitier recorded an album with the composer Fred Katz called Poitier Meets Plato, in which Poitier recites passages from Plato's writings.[44]
Business
From 1995 to 2003, Poitier served as a member of the board of directors of The Walt Disney Company.[45]
Diplomatic service
In April 1997, Poitier was appointed ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan, a position he held until 2007. From 2002 to 2007, he was concurrently the ambassador of the Bahamas to UNESCO.[2]
Personal life
Poitier was first married to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950, until 1965. They raised their family in Stuyvesant, New York, in a house on the Hudson River.[46] In 1959, Poitier began a nine-year affair with actress Diahann Carroll[47], who gave birth to a daughter during that period. He has been married to Joanna Shimkus, a Canadian former actress, since January 23, 1976. He has four daughters with his first wife and two with his second: Beverly,[48][49] Pamela,[50] Sherri,[51] Gina,[52] Anika,[53] and Sydney Tamiia.[54]
In addition to his six daughters, Poitier has eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.[55]
When Hurricane Dorian hit the Bahamas in September 2019, Poitier's family had 23 missing relatives.[56]
Honors and awards
- 1958: British Academy Film Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Defiant Ones
- 1958: Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for The Defiant Ones[57]
- 1963: Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field
- 1963: Silver Bear for Best Actor (Berlin Film Festival) for Lilies of the Field[58]
- 1964: Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Lilies of the Field
- 1974: Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE)[6][7][8]
- 1982: Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award[59]
- 1992: AFI Life Achievement Award
- 1995: Kennedy Center Honors
- 1997: Appointed non-resident Bahamian Ambassador to Japan
- 1999: SAG Life Achievement Award
- 2000: NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn
- 2001: NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award
- 2001 Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album – Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) and Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man
- 2002: Honorary Oscar – "For his extraordinary performances and unique presence on the screen and for representing the industry with dignity, style and intelligence"
- 2009: Presidential Medal of Freedom[60]
- 2011: Film Society of Lincoln Center Gala Tribute[61] honoring his life and careers
- 2016: BAFTA Fellowship
Filmography
Actor
Director
Year | Title |
---|---|
1972 | Buck and the Preacher |
1973 | A Warm December |
1974 | Uptown Saturday Night |
1975 | Let's Do it Again |
1977 | A Piece of the Action |
1980 | Stir Crazy |
1982 | Hanky Panky |
1985 | Fast Forward |
1990 | Ghost Dad |
Television
Works about Poitier
Autobiographies
Poitier has written three autobiographical books:
- This Life (1980)
- The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000)
- Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter (2008, an Oprah's Book Club selection)
Poitier is also the subject of the biography Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon (2004) by historian Aram Goudsouzian.[62]
Poitier wrote the novel Montaro Caine, released in May 2013.
Films about Poitier
- Sidney Poitier, an Outsider in Hollywood (Sidney Poitier, an outsider à Hollywood). Documentary film by Catherine Arnaud. Arte, France, 2008, 70 minutes.
- Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light. American Masters, PBS. USA, 2000. 60 minutes.[63]
See also
- David Hampton, an impostor who posed as Poitier's son "David" in 1983, which inspired a play and a film, Six Degrees of Separation
- John Stewart (comics), a superhero whose design was based on Poitier
- List of earliest surviving Academy Award winners
Notes
- ^ James Baskett won an Honorary Academy Award for Song of the South (1946); it was not competitive.
References
- ^ Sidney Poitier Biography Archived July 24, 2015, at the Wayback Machine AETN UK. The Biography Channel. 2005–11; retrieved July 23, 2015.
- ^ a b "Sir [sic] Sidney Poitier, best known Bahamian, honored". Retrieved 21 February 2015.
- ^ Bill Goodykoontz, Gannett Chief Film Critic (February 25, 2014). "Oscar win proved Sidney Poitier was second to none". Usatoday.com. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ Awards for Sidney Poitier at IMDb
- ^ "Top Ten Money Making Stars". Quigley Publishing Co. Archived from the original on January 14, 2013. Retrieved August 30, 2009.
- ^ a b "Award of Honorary Knight Commander of the British Empire (KBE) to Sidney Poitier, actor... | The National Archives". Discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ a b "CNN.com - U.S. general knighthood sparks row - May 25, 2004". www.cnn.com.
- ^ a b "Reagan Now a Knight but Not a Sir : Queen Bestows Title--No Dubbing, No Kneeling Required". Los Angeles Times. June 14, 1989.
- ^ a b "Sidney Poitier to be Honoured with BAFTA Fellowship". BAFTA. 12 January 2016. Retrieved 10 June 2017.
- ^ "Sidney Poitier, Sen. Ted Kennedy Among 16 Who Receive Medal of Freedom". The Washington Post. September 13, 2009. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ "Sidney Poitier awards: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards database". Awardsdatabase.oscars.org. January 29, 2010. Archived from the original on January 14, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ Poitier, Sidney (1980). This Life. US, Canada: Knopf (US), Random House (Canada). pp. 2, 5.
At this point [his father, Reginald Poitier] still had four boys and two girls (quite a few to make it through)... (2); When Reginald and Evelyn Poitier returned to Cat Island from Miami, carrying me – the new baby they now called 'Sidney' – they were greeted by their six children ... my older brother Cyril, fifteen; Ruby, thirteen; Verdon (Teddy) [female], eleven; Reginald, eight; Carl, five; and Cedric, three. (5)
- ^ "Sidney Poitier Film Reference biography". Filmreference.com. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ "Davis Smiley interviews Sidney Poitier". Archived from the original on March 16, 2009.
- ^ a b Adam Gourmand, Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon (2004), pg. 8.
- ^ "Bio – Sidney Poitier". Archived from the original on 6 May 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
- ^ Aram Goudsouzian (2004). Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-2843-4.
- ^ Meyers, Allan D. (2015), "Striking for Freedom: The 1831 Uprising at Golden Grove Plantation, Cat Island", The International Journal of Bahamian Studies.
- ^ "Sidney Poitier". Oprah Presents Master Class. Season 1. Episode 7. April 22, 2012. Oprah Winfrey Network. Archived from the original on October 27, 2013.
- ^ Poitier, Sidney. The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography. (2000). New York. HarperCollins.
- ^ Winfrey, Oprah (October 15, 2000). "Oprah Talks to Sidney Poitier". The Oprah Winfrey Show. Retrieved September 16, 2010.
I come from a Catholic family.
- ^ Poitier, Sidney (2009). Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter. HarperCollins. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-06-149620-2.
The question of God, the existence or nonexistence, is a perennial question, because we don't know. Is the universe the result of God, or was the universe always there?
- ^ Sidney Poitier (2009). Life Beyond Measure. HarperCollins. pp. 85–86. ISBN 978-0-06-173725-1.
I don't see a God who is concerned with the daily operation of the universe. In fact, the universe may be no more than a grain of sand compared with all the other universes.... It is not a God for one culture, or one religion, or one planet.
- ^ Goudsouzian, Aram (2004), Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon, University of North Carolina Press, ISBN 978-0-8078-2843-4, p. 44.
- ^ Bergman, Carol (1988). Sidney Poitier. Chelsea House Publishers. pp. 54–56. ISBN 978-1555466053.
- ^ Poitier, Sidney. The Measure of a Man (2000). New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
- ^ Chenrow, Fred; Chenrow, Carol (1974). Reading Exercises in Black History. Elizabethtown, PA: The Continental Press, Inc. p. 46. ISBN 0-8454-2108-5.
- ^ Missourian; Sidney Poitier; pp. 69, 133.
- ^ Poitier, Sidney (2000). The Measure of a Man (First ed.). San Francisco: Harper. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-0-06-135790-9.
- ^ Grant, Nicholas (January 1, 2014). "Crossing the Black AtlanticThe Global Antiapartheid Movement and the Racial Politics of the Cold War". Radical History Review. 2014 (119): 72–93. doi:10.1215/01636545-2401951 – via read.dukeupress.edu.
- ^ "Blackboard Jungle (1955) - IMDb" – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ Crowther, Bosley. The New York Times, film review, September 25, 1958. Last accessed: February 23, 2011.
- ^ Variety, film review, September 24, 1958. Last accessed: February 23, 2011.
- ^ Harris, Mark (2008). Pictures at a Revolution: Five Films and the Birth of a New Hollywood. Penguin Press. pp. 58–9.
- ^ Harris 2008, pp. 81–2.
- ^ Bleiler, David (2013). TLA Film and Video Guide 2000–2001: The Discerning Film Lover's Guide. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781466859401.
- ^ Maltin, Leonard; Sader, Luke; Clark, Mike (2008). Leonard Maltin's 2009 Movie Guide. Penguin. p. 681. ISBN 9780452289789.
- ^ Thompson, Bennie G. (February 26 – March 10, 2004). "Etension of Remarks: A Tribute to Ms. Beulah "Beah" Richards". Congressional Record. 150 (3). Government Printing Office: 2872.
- ^ Ebiri, Bilge (February 14, 2017). "Get Out's Jordan Peele Brings the 'Social Thriller' to BAM | Village Voice". Village Voice. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
- ^ Harris 2008, p. 161.
- ^ O'Neil, Tom (New York, 2003), "Movie Awards: The Ultimate, Unofficial Guide to the Oscars. Golden Globes, Critics, Guild and Indi Honors", Berkley Publishing Group. pg. 761.
- ^ Lauren Moraski (July 10, 2012). "Ernest Borgnine's death makes Sidney Poitier the oldest living best actor Oscar winner". Celebrity Circuit. CBS News. Retrieved July 27, 2012.
- ^ Earl G. Graves, Ltd. (December 2000). Black Enterprise. Earl G. Graves, Ltd. p. 108.
- ^ Goudsouzian, Aram, Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon, The University of North Carolina Press, 2004, p. 395.
- ^ "Actor Takes Center Stage as Disney Trial Grinds On", New York Times, August 12, 2004.
- ^ "Stuyvesant Outdoor Adventures". Stuyvesant Outdoor Adventures. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
- ^ Armstrong, Louis (August 4, 1980). "Guess Who's Coming to Terms at Last with His Kids, Racial Politics and Life? Sidney Poitier". People.
- ^ "Miss Beverly Marie Poitier Bride of William J. Q. Mould". September 6, 1970 – via NYTimes.com.
- ^ "Poitier-Henderson Holds Book Signing – WLBT 3 – Jackson, MS". Wlbt.com. August 6, 2014. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ Feuer, Alan (February 12, 2005), "Hundreds Mourn Ossie Davis in Harlem", The New York Times.
- ^ "Daughters of King, Malcolm X Also Have a Message". Pqasb.pqarchiver.com. April 9, 1988. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ "Atlanta News, Sports, Atlanta Weather, Business News | ajc.com". Nl.newsbank.com. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ Dan Shaw (May 21, 1994). "Chronicle – New York Times". Nytimes.com. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ "Advice For Upn: Get Rid Of 'Abby' – New York Daily News". Articles.nydailynews.com. 1969-08-09. Archived from the original on July 30, 2012. Retrieved August 10, 2014.
- ^ Sidney Poitier children and grandchildren. BIFF.
- ^ Dixon, Hayley; Millward, David; Maximin, Colin (2019-09-08). "Hurricane Dorian: more than 23 members of Sidney Poitier's family missing". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
- ^ a b "Berlinale 1958: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved April 1, 2010.
- ^ a b "Berlinale 1963: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 2010-02-14.
- ^ Hollywood Foreign Press Association – Cecil B. DeMille Award, January 2015 Archived October 6, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "President Obama Names Medal of Freedom Recipients", White House Office of the Press Secretary, July 30, 2009.
- ^ "Film Society of Lincoln Center honors the life and career of Sidney Poitier" Archived September 11, 2012, at archive.today, Lincoln Center of the Performing Arts, May 2, 2011.
- ^ Goudsouzian, Aram. Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon (2004). University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0807828434.
- ^ Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light at IMDb
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