Sidney Poitier death: First Black man to win Best Actor Oscar dies aged 94
Sidney Poitier has died, aged 94.
The Hollywood star was known for films including Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Lilies of the Field, for which he became the first Black and Bahamian man to win a Best Actor Oscar.
The news was announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, prompting tributes.
Bahamian-American star Poitier was automatically granted US citizenship after being unexpectedly born in Miami while his parents were visiting. He grew up in the Bahamas but moved to American when he was 15, scoring his first lead film role in 1955’s Blackboard Jungle.
His first brush with award nominations came with The Defiant Ones (1958), which saw him nominated for Best Actor alongside co-star Tony Curtis.
Six years later, he historically won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Lilies of the Field.
Denzel Washington praised Poitier when he became the second Black man to win Best Actor for 2001 film Training Day, saying: “I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney. I’ll always be following in your footsteps. There’s nothing I would rather do, sir.”
At the same ceremony, Poitier received an Honorary Academy Award for his contribution to American cinema. As of 2012, following the death of Ernest Borgnine, Poitier became the oldest living Best Actor winner in history.
In an interview published on Thursday (6 January), Washington told Variety he would have loved to have starred in a film with Poitier, who retired from acting in 2001.
“God bless him – He’s still here, but yeah, I missed that opportunity,” the actor said.
In 1967, Poitier starred in three films that addressed the issue of race relations: To Sir, with Love, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night, which was directed by Norman Jewison.
In the latter, he played Virgil Tibbs, a black police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi. It became so known for Poitier’s line of dialogue “They call me Mr Tibbs” that a sequel named after the quote (stylised They Call Me MISTER Tibbs) arrived in 1970.
In the 1980s, he directed Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in comedy film Stir Crazy.
His other film credits include Porgy and Bess (1959), Paris Blues (1961), A Patch of Blue (1965), Sneakers (1992) andThe Jackal (1997).
The actor also served as a diplomat. In 1997, he was named the ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan. He remained in the position until 2007.
Poitier married twice, the first time to Juanita Hardy from 1960 to 1965. After a nine-year affair with actor and singer Diahann Carol, Poitier married Joanna Shimkus in 1976. They stayed together for the remainder of his life.
Poitier is survived by six children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Westworld and No Time to Die actor Jeffrey Wright led the tributes to Poitier, writing on Twitter: “Sidney Poitier. What a landmark actor. One of a kind. What a beautiful, gracious, warm, genuinely regal man. RIP, Sir. With love.”
