Measures of a Man: Remembering Sidney Poitier”

Bahamian-American film actor and director Sidney Poitier passed away at the age of 94.

With a career that spanned over seven decades, Poitier made history in 1964 as the first African American actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in “Lilies of the Field” (1963).

Writer Wesley Morris, in his 2022 New York Times article, “Sidney Poitier Was The Star We Desperately Needed Him To Be”, writes, “Mr. Poitier was as crucial in the odyssey of freedom and equality for Black Americans — for personhood — as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, as Martin Luther King Jr. A clear descendant of Douglass’s rhetorical brilliance, he spoke the words of white people but from his own mouth.”

Known for being one of the greatest actors of the late 20^th century, Poitier was an influence on many African American actors today, including two-time Academy Award winner and renowned actor and film director Denzel Washington. Washington’s Best Actor win came nearly forty years after Poitier’s historic win. Washington spoke on Poitier’s influence in a 2000 USA Today article. Washington spoke about how he crossed paths with Poitier in a bookstore and from then on, a lasting friendship and mentorship was born.

Poitier would find acclaim early in his career with roles in films such as “Porgy and Bess” (1959), “A Raisin in the Sun”(1961), and “A Patch of Blue” (1965). His work would reach a new generation with roles in “Shoot To Kill” (1988) and “Sneakers (1992).

Poitier’s death was confirmed by Clint Watson, press secretary for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas.

For the longest time, Poitier was the only leading African American actor in Hollywood. At a time when America was grappling with racial tensions during the fever pitch of the Civil Rights Movement, that same reckoning was being portrayed on screen. ” ‘(Blacks) were so new in Hollywood. There was almost no frame of reference for us except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters,’ Poitier said, ‘I had in mind what was expected of me — not just what other Blacks expected but what my mother and father expected. And what I expected of myself.’”

Poitier’s other accolades include a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1994, a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 2001, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from then-44^th President Barack Obama in 2009, and an award of prestige from the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2011.

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