By Raquel Stecher
Poised, elegant, thoughtful, intelligent, talented.
These are the words that I think of when I think of legend Sidney Poitier. Born on February 20th, 1927 in Miami, Florida, he grew up in a rural village on Cat Island in the Bahamas. His family moved to Nassau when he was 10, and it wasn’t until he moved back to Florida at the age of 15 that he first faced prejudice and racism.
In his memoir The Measure of a Man, Poitier writes: “I didn’t think about the color of my skin. Not any more than I would have bothered to wonder why the sand was white or the sky was blue.” Poitier felt out of place and in danger in Florida. So, at the age of 16, he boarded a bus to New York City. It was there that he got his start as an actor.
After a stint in the Army, he worked as a dishwasher in a restaurant where he learned how to read, thanks to a waiter/friend who gave him lessons. He auditioned for the North American Negro Theater and trained for months perfecting his acting skills and softening his Bahamian accent (he bought a radio for $14 and would practice listening to how announcers pronounced words).
When he finally made it into the theater, it wasn’t long before Hollywood came knocking. He got a plum part in the film No Way Out (1950). Back home in Nassau, his family gathered to watch the film. It was the first time his parents had ever seen a movie, let alone one starring their son. Poitier remembered: “My fingers touched the glitter with that first movie… I knew full well how far I had come from those days in Nassau when I dreamed of being a cowboy in Hollywood.”
Poitier’s fate was sealed. He was a Hollywood star. He would go on to make over 40 films in his career and audiences flocked to the theater to watch this charismatic, handsome, and elegant man on screen. After No Way Out, he traveled to South Africa (he and fellow co-star Canada Lee were literally smuggled into the country by director Zoltan Korda) to make Cry, the Beloved Country (1951). His breakthrough role in Blackboard Jungle (1955) caught the attention of critics and movie moguls alike. He played opposite Tony Curtis in The Defiant Ones (1958) (they were shackled together as runaway convicts), John Cassavetes in Edge of the City (1957), Rock Hudson in Something of Value (1957), and Paul Newman in Paris Blues (1961). As his star was on the rise, he began to get top billing in films such as the musical Porgy and Bess (1959) and the adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s play A Raisin in the Sun (1959).
The mid to late 1960s proved to be the peak of Poitier’s career. He starred in Lilies of the Field (1963), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor, making Poitier the first African-American to win the coveted prize. In 1965, he made my favorite of his films, the bittersweet romance A Patch of Blue. He cemented his legacy with roles in The Bedford Incident (1965), To Sir, with Love (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967) (arguably his best performance and known for the line: “They call me Mr. Tibbs!”), and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967).
Poitier was one of the top box office stars of the decade. By 1968, he’d expanded his role as an actor to become a writer and director. He starred in and directed For Love of Ivy (1968), A Warm December (1973), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), and Stir Crazy (1980), among other films.
Poitier’s final film role was in The Jackal (1997) and, while he hasn’t made a film since, he did keep busy with numerous other projects, including writing several memoirs and even publishing a science fiction novel! Over the years, Poitier has been criticized for playing it safe and taking on roles that were non-threatening to white audiences. But it's undeniable that Poitier opened doors for African-Americans by proving that he had the smarts, the charisma, and the talent to star in films that would have audiences coming back for more.
In 2002, Poitier received an honorary Academy Award for lifetime achievement in film. Looking back at his career Poitier wrote: “Freud once said that life is love and work… My work is me, and I try my damnedest to take very good care of me, because I’m taking care of more than just the me that one sees. I’m taking care of the me that represents a hell of a lot more…”
Celebrate Sidney Poitier’s legendary career with these films available to rent from DVD Netflix.
Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Something of Value (1957)
Edge of the City (1957)
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Lilies of the Field (1963)
The Long Ships (1964)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
To Sir, with Love (1966)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? (1967)
For Love of Ivy (1968)
They Call Me Mr. Tibbs (1970)
The Organization (1971)
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
A Warm December (1973)
The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
Stir Crazy (1980)
Shoot to Kill (1988)
Sneakers (1992)
The Jackal (1997)
Raquel Stecher has been writing about classic films for the past decade on her blog Out of the Past. She attends the TCM Classic Film Festival as well as other events where old movie fanatics get together to geek out. Raquel has been a devoted DVD Netflix member since 2002! Follow her on her blog Out of the Past or find her on Twitter @RaquelStecher and @ClassicFilmRead, Facebook, and Instagram.