The Guardian: Retrograde review – newcomer Donné Ngabo is dazzling as Sidney Poitier in this taut drama
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Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. Among his other accolades are two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a BAFTA Award and a Grammy Award, in addition to nominations for two Emmy Awards and a Tony Award. In 1999, he was ranked number 22 among the "America…
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entertainment · Bahamian-American actor, filmmaker, diplomat and author (1927–2022) · film actor · film director · diplomat · autobiographer · film producer · writer · author · television actor · stage actor · actor · also Sidney Poitier, Sir Sidney Poitier, Sidney L. Poitier, Poitier
Born 20 February 1927 · Died 6 January 2022 · Q104049
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2026· 1 entry
2025· 1 entry
The New York Times: Sidney Poitier
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2023· 2 entries
The Guardian: Retrograde review – toxicity meets integrity in exceptional Sidney Poitier drama
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The Guardian: Buck and the Preacher review – Poitier and Belafonte are a dream team in breezy western
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2022· 17 entries
The Guardian: Sidney Poitier remembered by Sydney Tamiia Poitier
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The Guardian: Streaming: the best Sidney Poitier films
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New York Post: How Sidney Poitier went from sleeping in toilets to winning Oscars
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Essence: What Oprah Winfrey Found Out About Sidney Poitier While Producing His Tribute Documentary, 'Sidney'
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The Guardian: Sidney review – Poitier’s epic life story a paean to charm, talent and heroism
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The Guardian: Samuel L Jackson criticises Oscars for sidelining Poitier and losing mystique
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People: Sidney Poitier's Family to Hold Private Memorial Service for Late Actor Due to COVID
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The Guardian: ‘Sidney Poitier was the only light at the end of the tunnel’: Don Warrington on his lifelong hero
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The Guardian: Sidney Poitier was a defining figure of distinguished Blackness | Todd Boyd
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Yahoo: Sidney Poitier Documentary in the Pipeline at Apple, with Oprah Winfrey as Executive Producer
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People: Will Smith Pays Tribute to 'Visionary and True Pioneer' Sidney Poitier: 'Your Legacy Is Eternal'
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The Guardian: Sidney Poitier wasn’t blinded by success, he paved the way for other Black actors | Kadish Morris
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The Guardian: Sidney Poitier obituary
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Died 2022-01-06.
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Poitier died at his home in Beverly Hills, California, at the age of 94
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Was inducted into the National Multicultural Western Heritage Museum
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“The older we get the less afraid we are.”
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2021· 1 entry
The academy dedicated the lobby of the new Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles as the "Sidney Poitier Grand Lobby" in his honor
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2016· 2 entries
Awarded BAFTA Fellowship (2016).
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Was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding lifetime achievement in film
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2015· 1 entry
Won Spingarn Medal (2015).
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2014· 1 entry
Poitier appeared with Angelina Jolie at the 86th Academy Awards to present the Best Director Award
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2012· 2 entries
Released album “d’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths”.
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Poitier became the oldest living recipient of the Academy Award for Best Actor
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2009· 2 entries
Won Presidential Medal of Freedom presented by Barack Obama (2009).
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Was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama
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2008· 1 entry
Awarded Paul Robeson Award (2008).
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2006· 1 entry
Awarded Marian Anderson Award (2006).
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2002· 4 entries
Awarded Academy Honorary Award (2002).
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Poitier received the 2001 Honorary Academy Award for his overall contribution to American cinema
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Career landmark: ambassador of the Bahamas (2002–2007).
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Denzel Washington said of Poitier: "Before Sidney, African American actors had to take supporting roles in major studio films that were easy to cut out in certain parts of the country
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2001· 2 entries
Awarded NAACP Image Award – Hall of Fame Award (2001).
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Awarded Grammy Award for Best Audio Book, Narration & Storytelling Recording for The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2001).
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2000· 2 entries
Awarded NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special for The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn (2000).
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Awarded Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award (2000).
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1999· 1 entry
Was ranked number 22 among the "American Film Institute's 100 Stars"
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1997· 2 entries
Co-starred in The Jackal with Richard Gere and Bruce Willis
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Career landmark: ambassador of the Bahamas (1997–2007).
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1995· 2 entries
Awarded Kennedy Center Honors (1995).
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Received the Kennedy Center Honor and in 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama
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1994· 2 entries
Awarded star on Hollywood Walk of Fame (1994).
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Poitier received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
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1992· 3 entries
Awarded AFI Life Achievement Award (1992).
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Starred in Sneakers with Robert Redford and Dan Aykroyd
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Poitier received the AFI Life Achievement Award
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1988· 1 entry
Starred in Shoot to Kill with Tom Berenger
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1986· 2 entries
Awarded honorary doctor of the University of Miami (1986).
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Gave the Commencement Address to the University of Miami graduating class and was given the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Fine Arts
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1985· 1 entry
Directed Fast Forward and, in 1990, he reunited with Cosby directing him in the family comedy Ghost Dad
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1983· 2 entries
That A Raisin in the Sun "changed American theater forever"
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Which inspired the 1990 play and 1993 film Six Degrees of Separation
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1982· 1 entry
The Kennedy Center Honor in 1995, Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 1999, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2002
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1981· 2 entries
Won Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award (1981).
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Awarded Coretta Scott King Award (1981).
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1978· 1 entry
Awarded Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame (1978).
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1976· 1 entry
Married Joanna Shimkus, who starred with Poitier in The Lost Man in 1969, and they remained married until his death
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1974· 1 entry
Awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1974).
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1972· 1 entry
Made his feature film directorial debut, the Western Buck and the Preacher, in which Poitier also starred, alongside Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee
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1969· 1 entry
Released album “Sidney Poitier Reads the Poetry of the Black Man”.
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1968· 2 entries
Earned Silver Shell for Best Actor (1968).
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Awarded Henrietta Award (1968).
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1967· 2 entries
Films which addressed race and race relations: To Sir, with Love; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night, the latter of which earned him Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations
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Was the most successful draw at the box office, the commercial peak of his career, with three popular films, To Sir, with Love, and In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
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1966· 1 entry
Turned down an opportunity to play the lead in an NBC television production of Othello with that spirit in mind
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1964· 5 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1964).
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Was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor
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Poitier recorded an album with the composer Fred Katz called Poitier Meets Plato, in which Poitier recites passages from Plato's writings
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Released album “Jackie Barnett Presents - Poitier Meets Plato - Music Composed And Conducted By Fred Katz”.
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Won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1963)
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1963· 2 entries
Won Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Lilies of the Field (1963).
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Earned Silver Bear for Lilies of the Field (1963).
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1961· 2 entries
Poitier starred in Paris Blues alongside Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Louis Armstrong, and Diahann Carroll
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Poitier starred in the film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun for which he received another Golden Globe Award nomination
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1959· 1 entry
Poitier began a nine-year affair with actress Diahann Carroll
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1958· 2 entries
Earned Silver Bear for Best Actor for The Defiant Ones (1958).
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Starred alongside Tony Curtis in director Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones
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1956· 1 entry
Raised their family in Stuyvesant, New York, in a house on the Hudson River
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1952· 1 entry
Was one of several narrators in a pageant written by Alice Childress and Lorraine Hansberry for the Negro History Festival put on by the leftist Harlem monthly newspaper Freedom
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1951· 1 entry
Traveled to South Africa with the African-American actor Canada Lee to star in the film version of Cry, the Beloved Country
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1947· 1 entry
Poitier was a founding member of the Committee for the Negro in the Arts (CNA), an organization whose participants were committed to a left-wing analysis of class and racial exploitation
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1942· 1 entry
Was sent back to Miami to live with his brother's large family, but Poitier found it impossible to adjust to the racism in Jim Crow era Florida
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1940· 1 entry
And Dorothy Dandridge in 1954) and the first Black male actor to win the award
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1927· 1 entry
Born 1927-02-20.
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