JUST IN: Sidney Poitier, First Black Man to Win Best Actor Oscar, Passes Away at Age 94
Photo by VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images.
Hollywood legend Sidney Poitier, who made history as the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Actor, passed away Thursday evening at the age of 94.
Clint Watson, the press secretary for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas, confirmed Poitier’s passing, reported CNN.
The youngest of seven children of Bahamian farmers, Poitier was born on February 20, 1927. His birth was two months premature and a surprise to his parents, who were visiting Miami, Florida at the time to sell produce from their farm. The American birthplace made him an automatic U.S. citizen. After several months in a Miami hospital, the family brought Poitier back to the Bahamas, where he grew up until he moved to the U.S. at age 15 and stayed with an older brother.
In Nov. 1943, he lied about his age in order to enlist in the Army. He then worked as a dishwasher in New York City while working on softening his Bahamian accent and auditioning for plays, getting his first role with the American Negro Theater’s production of Lysistrata.
Poitier’s first film role was in 1955’s Blackboard Jungle, a breakout role that would soon open doors to bigger opportunities. He received his first Oscar nomination for The Defiant Ones in 1958 and a Golden Globe nomination for 1961’s Raisin in the Sun.
He won his historic Best Actor Oscar in 1963 for Lilies of the Field, making him the first Black man and first Bahamian to win the award.
1967 was a trifecta for Poitier at the box office, with key roles in three popular films, To Sir, With Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, a groundbreaking film that was one of the first to depict an interracial relationship in a positive light.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honored Poitier in 2001 with an Honorary Academy Award,”in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human.”
In addition to his acting, Poitier also directed nine films, served on the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company from 1995 to 2003, and was the ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan from 1997 until 2007.
Poitier is survived by his wife, Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus Poitier, six daughters (including actress Sydney Tamiia Poitier), eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
