Sideny Poitier
We always say the best music, movies and TV shows have all been made, we’re here to help you remember them all. That includes the best actors too! Sidney Poitier was a class act who passed on Jan. 7, 2022 at the age of 94. Let’s start out with a celebration of the man in music featuring Louis Armstrong, Paul Newman on trombone and the man, Sidney Poitier on sax from 1961’s “Paris Blues.”
Perhaps, the most touching tribute to Sidney Poitier came from another master of the arts, Quincy Jones. The following words are incredibly touching and you can just imagine all the stories the two would have to share with people if they could both sit down to tell them.
The Oscar-winner appeared in more than 50 films whose career also included directing, producing and being an active voice in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. He was also an ambassador for the Bahamas, his home country.
Born on February 20, 1927 in Miami while his Bahamian-born, tomato farming parents were just visiting the city. In fact, he was raised in the Bahamas until he was 15. At the age of 16 he’d settle in New York with various jobs and serve in the U.S. Army during WWII.
His first ‘official’ performance was in 1946 when he made his Broadway debut in Lysistrata. In 1949, he was cast as a doctor treating a white bigot in the 1950 drama, No Way Out. With other jobs along the way, it was 1955’s Blackboard Jungle that really put him on the map as a viable leading man in Hollywood. His first brush with Oscar gold came in 1958 when he was nominated for Best Actor for “The Defiant Ones.” But it wouldn’t be until 1963 that he would finally take home an Oscar of his very own for Lillies Of The Field.
In 1959, he was in Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun which originated on Broadway, He’d also play that same character (Walter Lee Younger) in the 1961 film version.
For more on this amazing man, click here.
Enjoy some of his greatest performances below including an amazing interview from 2014.
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