Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor, has died at the age of 94. The trailblazing actor, who was known as Hollywood’s first Black movie star, passed away on Thursday (January 6), press secretary for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas confirmed.
Poitier had a groundbreaking film career that spanned decades. He paved the way for Black actors with his performances and his conscious decision to reject roles he felt were demeaning as he purposely chose to portray dignified and intelligent characters.
“(Blacks) were so new in Hollywood. There was almost no frame of reference for us except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters,” he once told Oprah Winfrey. “I had in mind what was expected of me — not just what other Blacks expected but what my mother and father expected. And what I expected of myself.”
Poitier won the Oscar of best actor in 1964 for his depiction of an ex-serviceman in Lilies of the Field. His groundbreaking accolades didn’t stop there, Poitier was also the recipient of the Golden Globes’ lifetime achievement honor in 1982; he was the recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1995; he won a Grammy for narrating his autobiography, “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography,” which was published in 2000; and he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
Keep scrolling to see Poitier’s life through the years.
Ruby Dee, Sidney Poitier and Diana Sands in “A Rasin in the Sun” in 1954.Photo: Getty ImagesSidney Poitier as Noah Cullen and Tony Curtis (1925 – 2010) as John ‘Joker’ Jackson, in ‘The Defiant Ones’, directed by Stanley Kramer, in 1958.Photo: Getty ImagesOn the set of the movie ‘Lilies of the Field’ for which he won the Academy Award for best actor, in Tuscon, Arizona.Photo: Getty ImagesAmerican actor Sidney Poitier (left) listens to singer Harry Belafonte (center) as actor Charleton Heston (1923 – 2008) stands with them in the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington DC on August 28, 1963.Photo: Getty ImagesActors (left to right) Harry Belafonte, Charlton Heston, Burt Lancaster and Sidney Poitier attending the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a huge civil rights rally in Washington DC on August 28, 1963. Photo: Getty ImagesAcademy Award winning actor Sidney Poitier holding the Oscar for his role in ‘Lilies of the Field’ in 1964. Photo: Getty ImagesSidney Poitier holds his Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for ‘Lilies Of The Field’.Photo: Getty ImagesSidney Poitier looks into a mirror and smiles while holding his Best Actor Oscar for director Ralph Nelson’s film, ‘Lilies of the Field’, backstage at the Academy Awards in Santa Monica, California.Photo: Getty ImagesAt the 36th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on April 13, 1964.Photo: Getty ImagesAttending the Governors Ball after the 36th Academy Awards.Photo: Getty ImagesOn the set of ‘To Sir, With Love’.Photo: Getty ImagesKatherine Houghton puts flower Sidney Poitier’s hair in a scene from the film ‘Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner’, in 1967.Photo: Getty ImagesWith jazz singer Abbey Lincoln in September 1967. Photo: Getty ImagesSupporting the Poor People’s Campaign at Resurrection City.Photo: Getty ImagesBeverly Todd and Sidney Poitier sit in a theatre in a scene from the film ‘The Lost Man’ in 1969.Photo: Getty ImagesSidney admires his honorary Oscar 24 March, 2002 at the 74th Academy Awards in Hollywood, CA. Photo: Getty ImagesWith Denzel Washington.Photo: Getty ImagesHalle Berry (L) presents US actor Sidney Poitier with the Brass Ring Award at the 15th Carousel of Hope Ball, a charity gala for childhood diabetes.Photo: Getty ImagesSidney Poitier and Barbara Davis.Photo: Getty ImagesWith his daughter, Sydney Tamiia Poitier.Photo: Getty ImagesBarack Obama (R) presents the Medal of Freedom to Academy Award-winning actor Sidney Poitier during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on August 12, 2009.Photo: Getty ImagesWith Morgan Freeman. Photo: Getty Images North AmericaSidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte attend the 43rd NAACP Image Awards.Photo: Getty ImagesArriving to the 86th Annual Academy Awards.Photo: Getty ImagesActor Sidney Poitier attends the Brigitte and Bobby Sherman Children’s Foundation’s 6th Annual Christmas Gala.Photo: Getty ImagesSidney during the 2017 TCM Classic Film Festival.Photo: Getty ImagesSidney Poitier and his wife, Joanna Shimkus.Photo: Getty Images
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