Sidney Poitier, who became the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar in 1963, passed away at 94 Thursday evening.
“Sidney Poitier does not make movies. He makes milestones. Milestones of artistic excellence, milestones of America’s progress.” President Barack Obama said awarding Poitier the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
Poitier was not able to diversify his role selection to different cinematic genres. He was instrumental in showcasing Black people as educated, starring in roles as teachers, doctors, and detectives, and outside of negative stereotypical roles of Black people in mainstream film and television.
Tibbs is slapped by a racist plantation owner while being questioned about his possible involvement in the murder. Poitier’s character slaps him back.
“(Blacks) were so new in Hollywood. There was almost no frame of reference for us except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters,” Poitier shared with 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.”
Norman Jewison’s 1967 “In the Heat of the Night,” gave American cinema one of its most impactful moments. Poitier played Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania homicide detective passing through Sparta, Mississippi who is stopped by a bigoted White police officer. He is detained as a possible murder suspect, then helps the towns police chief solve the crime.
Tibbs is slapped by a racist plantation owner while being questioned about his possible involvement in the murder. Poitier’s character slaps him back. In a display of the respect he commanded, before agreeing to do the film, Poitier requested a script change to add the retaliatory slap. He rewrote his contract to prohibit the studio from cutting the scene.
An inspirational figure, Poitier rose from an impoverished background in the Bahamas. He was born prematurely in 1927 to tomato farmers in Miami, and not expected to live.
In 1967, he had one of the most remarkable years any Hollywood star has had. Poitier starred in a successful string of three high-profile films and requested $1 million a movie. That would be $8.3 million per movie in 2022.
Poitier’s most successful and acclaimed roles explored and tackled racial tensions in the mid-century, in the heat of the civil rights movement.
His film debut came with 1950’s “No Way Out,” a noir film portraying a doctor who must treat a racist patient. That 1950’s film led to greater exposure and opportunity, which helped him book a role as a reverend in the apartheid drama “Cry, the Beloved Country.” Then as an escaped prisoner in “The Defiant Ones,” Poitier became the first Black man to receive an Oscar nomination.
Poitier’s 1967’s Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, was a controversial film with an all star cast featuring Katherine Hepburn, and Spencer Tracy. The film became well known for its taboo depiction of an interracial couple played by Poitier and Katherine Houghton. The film was eventually selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for its “cultural historical and aesthetic significance.”
Inspired by friend and outspoken musician Harry Belafonte, he went to the 1963 March on Washington and in 1964 went to Mississippi to meet with activists following the murders of three young civil rights activists, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman, and James Earl Chaney.
Poitier revived his career in the 1970’s following a shift in cinema, and began directing which continued into the 80s. His directorial debut was created alongside friend Belafonte on the film titled “Buck and the Preacher” and two sequels featuring majority Black casts. He directed and starred in the crowd-pleasers “Uptown Saturday Night” (1974) and “Let’s Do It Again” (1975).
“Racism was horrendous, but there were other aspects to life,” Poitier later told Winfrey. “There are those who allow their lives to be defined only by race. I correct anyone who comes at me only in terms of race.”
“In the history of movies, there’ve only been a few actors who, once they gained recognition, their influence forever changed the art form,” said Filmmaker Quentin Tarantino. “There’s a time before their arrival, and there’s a time after their arrival. And after their arrival, nothing’s ever going to be the same again. As far as the movies are concerned, there was pre-Poitier, and there was Hollywood post-Poitier.”
