As the first black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, Sidney Poitier’s legacy casts a shadow over cinematic history.
Born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974 and awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.
A new Apple TV+ documentary (debuting at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month) celebrates the life and career of a man who died in January. something to see picked six of his best performances (and where can you watch them now).
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Sidney Poitier, the first black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, died in January at the age of 94.
read more:
* Sydney: Apple TV+ doco is a fitting tribute to the actor who forged his own path
* 20 21st century movies that left their mark (and where you can watch them)
* ‘A symbol of dignity and grace’: Barack Obama leads tribute to Sidney Poitier
*Oscar-winning and groundbreaking actor Sidney Poitier dies at 94
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Sidney Poitier teamed up with Tony Curtis on The Defiant Ones.
Defiant Ones (1958, iTunes)
Nominated for nine Academy Awards (winning two for Best Black and White Cinematography and Best Original Screenplay), this groundbreaking drama stars Poitier and Tony Curtis as two people who must work together in bondage. tells the story of an escaped prisoner. survive. This was the first time Poitier’s name appeared above the title.
“[Director] Stanley Kramer, his incredible star, featured player, and more set the record straight with a powerful and tender definition of brotherhood,” wrote Helen Bauer of the Detroit Free Press.
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Sidney Poitier has joined Spencer Tracy in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967, iTunes)
Kramer is back at the helm of a rare film of the era that portrays interracial marriage in a positive light (just months before it was still illegal in 17 states). ).
Poitier plays Dr. John Prentice, a 37-year-old black widower. He is introduced to the parents of 23-year-old fiancée Joanna Drayton (Katherine Horton) after a stormy Hawaiian romance. He is also famous for being Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn’s last pair of nine.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times said the film was a pleasure to watch and a great evening of entertainment.
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Sidney Poitier plays Black Detective Virgil Tibbs in The Fever of the Night.
In the Heat of the Night (1967, iTunes, GooglePlay, YouTube)
Perhaps the most famous of Poitier’s most immortal lines, “They call me Mr Tibbs” is a film adaptation of John Ball’s 1965 novel of the same name, in which a small Mississippi town becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. It focuses on a black detective in Philadelphia.
Rod Steiger won an Oscar for Best Actor (one of five the film brought home, including Best Picture) for his role as local police chief Gillespie.
“Night Fever is an excuse for Rod Steiger and Sidney Poitier to shoot, enrage and hate each other. It transcends books and settings,” writes Joseph Germis of Newsday.
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Lilia Scala and Sidney Poitier in a scene from Lilies of the Field.
Lily of the Field (1963, iTunes)
The film, which brought Poitiers a historic Best Actor award, is an adaptation of William Edmund Barrett’s 1962 novel in which he plays Homer Smith, an itinerant worker who encounters a group of East German nuns. new chapel.
James Powers of The Hollywood Reporter said, “A funny, sentimental, engaging and uplifting film that once again proves that its intelligence, imagination and energy exceed the price tag of any ultra-budget.
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Sidney Poitier and Claudia M. Neil teamed up on A Raisin in the Sun.
A Raisin in the Sun (1961, iTunes)
Cited by some as one of the best plays ever written, Lorraine Hansbury’s 1959 story tells the story of a South Chicago man who tries to improve his financial situation by paying out an insurance policy after the death of his patriarch. It’s about a black family, and it quickly became a Hollywood movie, even with Ruby Dee on the screen. Newcomer Louis Gossett Jr.
“A wonderful, warm understanding of the humor, strength, and dignity of people under the weight of so many sad and ridiculous things that should engender love, not hate,” wrote Bosley Crowther of The New York Times. there is
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Sidney Poitier has amassed a whole new army of fans thanks to his performance in To You With Love.
Sir, With Love (1967, iTunes)
Featuring one of the stars Lulu’s US No. 1 hit of the same name (the song reached number 12 in New Zealand and, oddly enough, was only released as a B-side in her native UK), The school drama follows a British Guiana immigrant from Poitiers who, unable to find work as an engineer, reluctantly ends up teaching class 12 at North Quay Secondary School in London’s East End.
Based on ER Brightwait’s 1959 autobiographical novel.
Tony Mastroianni of the Cleveland Press wrote, “With Love, Sidney Poitier’s towering, sensitive performance makes for a great film.”
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