Poitier paved the way for many other actors, genres, and endeavors that had never been before. -- Donovan harris, 9th grade
Sidney Poitier, a Hollywood icon, passed away on January 6, 2022 at 94 years old in Beverly Hills. Poitier was best known for being the first black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, and for his ability to portray charming, sharp-witted characters who stood out for more than just the color of their skin. However today, he is known for much more than that. Poitier paved the way for many other actors, genres, and endeavors that had never been before.
One of the biggest examples of his talents was his dedication. In the 1940s, he practiced enunciating phrases he heard over American radio to expel his Bahamian accent. After six months, he was able to lose his accent and pick up his first roles at an American theater company. In 1950, he starred in the breakthrough film No Way Out in 1950, playing a black doctor who is harassed by a white patient. Poitier usually played characters like this: people of color who were grappling with racial discrimination and tensions that were prominent in this time period. Other 1950’s highlights were The Defiant Ones, which heavily dealt with racial discrimination and won the British Academy Awards for Best Foreign Actor. And A Raisin In The Sun, the film which won him Best Actor.
Poitier didn’t truly become a household name, at least by today’s standards, until 1967, when he starred in three landmark films, To Sir, With Love, In The Heat Of The Night, and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. He was noticed for several things across these films. In In The Heat Of The Night, Poitier plays a police officer who slaps a white man during an argument, which occured during an inquiration about a murder he was solving. This scene was not only a landmark of Poitier’s career, but a landmark of film. The scene, dubbed “The slap heard ‘round the world,” was something that had never been done before, and most likely something no one had ever dreamed of even attempting.
Another reason this was very monumental was Poitier’s ability to deliver this scene. He was slapped first by this man, but Poitier was able to convey a reaction and an ability that no one, no matter their skin color, could do when in the same position. Director Norman Jewison claimed “"A black man had never slapped a white man back in an American film. We broke that taboo." Poitier risked a lot with that slap, and by playing that role: during filming, he slept with a gun underneath his pillow out of fear for his life, as they were below the Mason-Dixon Line, and unsure if anyone would try to harm him.
In Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Poiter plays a man in an interracial couple. It was a role that drew even more eyes on Poitier, since until the Supreme Court had only just ruled on the constitutionality of interracial marriage (before 1967, it was illegal in several states). The same year, he said this about the role that he played in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner:
It’s a choice, a clear choice, If the fabric of the society were different, I would scream to high heaven to play villains and to deal with different images of Negro life that would be more dimensional. But I’ll be damned if I do that at this stage of the game.
Outside of acting, Poitier was a keen advocate of the Civil Rights Movement. Not only was he close friends with people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harry Belafonte, he witnessed King’s delivery of I Have A Dream, and was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. He also contributed to the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa.
In 1963, while in Mississippi for the Freedom Summer campaign, Poitier and Belafonte were pursued in a high-speed chase with presumed members of the KKK. Though their driver eventually lost them, Poitier vowed to never return to Mississippi after the encounter; a vow he would not fulfill, when four years later he returned for the In The Heat Of The Night ( perhaps not coincidentally, there is a scene in the movie where he is involved in a car chase with a group of white men). These roles that he did highlighted the racial discrimination being faced by people of color. Not only was he playing lead roles, he was playing them in films that were about these experiences.
Following a career that spawned over four decades on the big screen, Poitier became a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company from 1995 to 2003. Poitier was also an ambassador for the Bahamas to Japan from 1997 to 2007, and ambassador to the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 2002 to 2007.
Poitier left a legacy on the world of film that will not be soon forgotten. He was not not only an actor, but an activist, mentor, and huge inspiration to the likes of Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, and Chadwick Boseman. OSA high school senior Kai Estrella Kowal said Poitier “always fully committed himself to the roles he put upon himself. Young actors could really learn through his tenacity and complete investment in the art. His performances are so beautiful because they are so raw, and it is clear the passion he put in them.” For his talents and contributions, Poitier received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, claiming Poitier had “left an indelible mark on American culture” and helped “advance the nation’s dialogue on race and respect.”
Hyperlinks:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/sidney-poitier-will-remembered-acting-advocacy-rcna11392
One of the biggest examples of his talents was his dedication. In the 1940s, he practiced enunciating phrases he heard over American radio to expel his Bahamian accent. After six months, he was able to lose his accent and pick up his first roles at an American theater company. In 1950, he starred in the breakthrough film No Way Out in 1950, playing a black doctor who is harassed by a white patient. Poitier usually played characters like this: people of color who were grappling with racial discrimination and tensions that were prominent in this time period. Other 1950’s highlights were The Defiant Ones, which heavily dealt with racial discrimination and won the British Academy Awards for Best Foreign Actor. And A Raisin In The Sun, the film which won him Best Actor.
Poitier didn’t truly become a household name, at least by today’s standards, until 1967, when he starred in three landmark films, To Sir, With Love, In The Heat Of The Night, and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner. He was noticed for several things across these films. In In The Heat Of The Night, Poitier plays a police officer who slaps a white man during an argument, which occured during an inquiration about a murder he was solving. This scene was not only a landmark of Poitier’s career, but a landmark of film. The scene, dubbed “The slap heard ‘round the world,” was something that had never been done before, and most likely something no one had ever dreamed of even attempting.
Another reason this was very monumental was Poitier’s ability to deliver this scene. He was slapped first by this man, but Poitier was able to convey a reaction and an ability that no one, no matter their skin color, could do when in the same position. Director Norman Jewison claimed “"A black man had never slapped a white man back in an American film. We broke that taboo." Poitier risked a lot with that slap, and by playing that role: during filming, he slept with a gun underneath his pillow out of fear for his life, as they were below the Mason-Dixon Line, and unsure if anyone would try to harm him.
In Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner, Poiter plays a man in an interracial couple. It was a role that drew even more eyes on Poitier, since until the Supreme Court had only just ruled on the constitutionality of interracial marriage (before 1967, it was illegal in several states). The same year, he said this about the role that he played in Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner:
It’s a choice, a clear choice, If the fabric of the society were different, I would scream to high heaven to play villains and to deal with different images of Negro life that would be more dimensional. But I’ll be damned if I do that at this stage of the game.
Outside of acting, Poitier was a keen advocate of the Civil Rights Movement. Not only was he close friends with people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Harry Belafonte, he witnessed King’s delivery of I Have A Dream, and was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington. He also contributed to the Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa.
In 1963, while in Mississippi for the Freedom Summer campaign, Poitier and Belafonte were pursued in a high-speed chase with presumed members of the KKK. Though their driver eventually lost them, Poitier vowed to never return to Mississippi after the encounter; a vow he would not fulfill, when four years later he returned for the In The Heat Of The Night ( perhaps not coincidentally, there is a scene in the movie where he is involved in a car chase with a group of white men). These roles that he did highlighted the racial discrimination being faced by people of color. Not only was he playing lead roles, he was playing them in films that were about these experiences.
Following a career that spawned over four decades on the big screen, Poitier became a member of the board of directors of the Walt Disney Company from 1995 to 2003. Poitier was also an ambassador for the Bahamas to Japan from 1997 to 2007, and ambassador to the United Nation Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from 2002 to 2007.
Poitier left a legacy on the world of film that will not be soon forgotten. He was not not only an actor, but an activist, mentor, and huge inspiration to the likes of Denzel Washington, James Earl Jones, and Chadwick Boseman. OSA high school senior Kai Estrella Kowal said Poitier “always fully committed himself to the roles he put upon himself. Young actors could really learn through his tenacity and complete investment in the art. His performances are so beautiful because they are so raw, and it is clear the passion he put in them.” For his talents and contributions, Poitier received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, claiming Poitier had “left an indelible mark on American culture” and helped “advance the nation’s dialogue on race and respect.”
Hyperlinks:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/sidney-poitier-will-remembered-acting-advocacy-rcna11392
