Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier 1927-, American actor, b. Miami, raised in the Bahamas, returned to the United States at 15. The first African-American actor to achieve leading man status in Hollywood films, Poitier combines attractiveness and poise with an innate projection of dignity and self-assurance. Many of his plays and films have directly addressed issues of race, including his Broadway triumph, Lorraine Hansberry 's A Raisin in the Sun (1959, film 1961), and such films as the pioneering No Way Out (1950), his movie debut; the internationally acclaimed Cry, the Beloved Country (1951), after Alan Paton 's novel; The Defiant Ones (1957), the film that established Poitier's reputation; Lilies of the Field (1963; Academy Award); Guess Who's Coming to Dinner? (1967), which treated the subject of interracial marriage; and In the Heat of the Night (1967). He turned to directing in 1971; among his films are Buck and the Preacher (1972), A Patch of Blue (1973), and Stir Crazy (1980). In 1991 he portrayed Thurgood Marshall in the Emmy-winning television film Separate but Equal.

Bibliography: See his autobiographies, This Life (1980) and The Measure of a Man (2000); biography by A. Goudsouzian (2004).

Poitier, Sidney (1927– ) US actor and director. His first major role was in No Way Out (1950). Poitier received an Oscar nomination for best actor in The Defiant Ones (1958). He was the first black actor to win a best actor Academy Award, for Lilies of the Field (1963). Other films include Blackboard Jungle (1955), To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (all 1967). The films he directed include Stir Crazy (1980).