Sidney Poitier, legendary actor and first black Hollywood star, died at the age of 94, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas announced Friday, January 7, 2022, where the actor grew up. “We have lost an icon, a hero, a mentor, a fighter, and a national treasure,” Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper wrote on his Facebook page about the actor from Chain or even In the heat of the Night, without mentioning the cause of his death.
Born prematurely in Miami, Florida, on February 20, 1927, when his parents moved from the neighboring Bahamas, Sidney Poitier thus obtained dual American and Bahamian nationality. In 1964, he was the first African American to win the Oscar for Best Actor for The lily of the fields.
“It was a long journey to get there “, he said very moved, receiving the golden statuette. Through his roles, audiences were able to conceive that African Americans could be doctors (The door opens – 1950), engineer, professor (Angels with clenched fists – 1967), or a policeman (In the heat of the Night – 1967). But at 37, when the incandescent actor receives his Oscar, he’s the only star of color in Hollywood.
“The film industry was not yet ready to elevate more than one minority personality to star status“, he deciphered in his autobiography This Life. “At the time, (…) I endorsed the hopes of a whole people. I had no control over the content of the films (…) but I could refuse a role, which I did many times“.
In Guess who’s coming to dinner? in 1967, he plays the fiance of a young white bourgeois presenting him to his parents, a couple of intellectuals who believe themselves to be open-minded. The meeting is a shock, and gives a major film on the racism of the time. AFP specifies that black cause activists have, however, harshly criticized Sidney Poitier for having accepted this role of internationally renowned doctor, poles apart from the discrimination suffered by his peers.
In 2002 Sidney Poitier received an honorary Oscar for “his extraordinary performances, his dignity, his style and his intelligence “.
He had been married since 1976 to actress Joanna Shimkus with whom he had two daughters. One of them, Sydney Tamiia Poitier, was also an actress. We could see it in particular in Death boulevard by Quentin Tarantino and the series Veronica Mars, The Return of K 2000 and Homecoming.