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| Sidney Poitier |
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| Forecourt Ceremony held on Friday, June 23, 1967 |
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Born: February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida
Age at the time of the ceremony: 40
Died: January 6, 2020, in Los Angeles, California, age 94
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Sidney Poitier is a Bi-National Treasure. The first black performer to really break into Hollywood stardom and acceptance, Poiter's performances in a wide range of films are truly something to savor — an exceptionally great actor, who made quite a number of ground-breaking films.
Born two months premature while his parents were visiting Miami Florida, Poiteir's parents were farmers on Cat Island in the Bahamas.
At age ten the Poitier family moved to Nassau, where young Sidney discovered the movies. At age 16, Poitier moved in with his brother in New York City, where he learned to refine his English and supported himself by washing dishes in a restaurant.
Fibbing about his age, he enlisted in the Army in 1943 and was given the task of being an attendant in a mental hospital. In 1944, he was discharged and went back to dishwashing until he got a spot with the American Negro Theatre in Harlem, where he would meet singer / actor Harry Belafonte.
Poitier stood out immediately on account of his accent and, due to being tone deaf, he was not able to use musicality in any real way. Poitier made his Broadway debut as Probulos in an all-black production of Lysistrata with Etta Moten Marten in the title role in October 1946. The play only had four performances, but after getting a taste of film work as an extra in Sepia Cinderella (released in July 1947), starring Billy Daniels, Poitier then played the part of Lester in a rivial of Anna Lucasta from September to October 1947.
By this time, Sidney was already on his way to Hollywood to star in Joseph L. Mankeiwicz' film No Way Out (which played the Chinese in October 1950). There was something about the way this actor handled himself in these roles that got him considered for films that other black actors just didn't get. He traveled to South Africa for director Zoltan Korda's film of Cry, the Beloved Country (released in November 1951). He next was cast as the star player of the Harlem Globetrotters in Go Man Go! (released in January 1954), directed by James Wong Howe.
But it was Poitier's multi-hued performance in
Blackboard Jungle (released in March 1955) with Glenn Ford, which made him a star. Poitier worked with director Martin Ritt in a noir, Edge of the City (released in January 1957), with John Cassavetes, then scored bigtime in direcrtor Stanley Kramer's memorable The Defiant Ones (released in September 1958), with Tony Curtis.
Now a big star, Poitier returned to Broadway to star in
A Raisin in the Sun for 530 perfs from March 1959 to June 1960, with Claudia McNeil, after shooting Porgy and Bess (released in June 1959), with Dorothy Dandridge. Poitier's singing voice was dubbed. If you have never seen this movie, there is a reason: the Gershwin Family hate it, and have prevented its circulation for years. Poitier starred in the Korean War film All the Young Men (released in August 1960), with Alan Ladd, then wowed everyone with the film version of A Raisin in the Sun (premiered in May 1961— at the Cannes Film Festival) with Claudia McNeil.
Poitier took a flyer on a low-budget movie with a wonderful part for him — as Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field (premiered in June 1963 — at the Berlin Film Festival, where he won the Silver Bear for Best Actor) with Lilia Skala as the head of the nunnery he encounters. Later, Poitier startled the world by winning the Oscar for Best Actor for this film.
The expensive, widescreen historical epic was still in vogue, and Poitier made one: The Long Ships (released in June 1964) with Richard Widmark, where he played a Moorish King. It flopped. His next film was a low-key triumph: A Patch of Blue (released in December 1965) with Shelly Winters, put him in a role where a black man is sympathetic to a struggling white woman, while To Sir, with Love (released in June 1967), turned Blackboard Jungle on its head, with Poitier playing a teacher in a rough school in London.
A role that Poitier will always be famous for is playing a forensic detective stuck down in the south in
In the Heat of the Night (which played the Chinese in August 1967) with Rod Steiger playing a bigoted police chief trying to solve a murder. A signature film. As is Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (released in December 1967), with Kate and Spence, which asked the question: "Would you want a black man to marry your (white) duaghter?" A lot of people said, "If he is Sidney Poitier — yes!"
And this was part of the problem. Poitier felt that he was being cast as a sort of black superman, representing the aspirations of everyone and no one. He took a break, and went to Broadway to direct a play called
Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights with Louis Gossett, Diane Ladd and Cicely Tyson in February 1968. It flopped.
But Poitier was a creative mood; he wrote the story for the rom-com
For Love of Ivy (released in July 1968) with Abbey Lincoln. He would be directing soon. They Call Me Mister Tibbs! (released in July 1970) with Martin Landau, was the first of two sequels to In the Heat of the Night, the other being The Organization (released in October 1971) with Barbara McNair.
On
Buck and the Preacher (released in March 1972) with Harry Belafonte as a producing partner, Poitier replaced the original director, who left the picture. Poitier brought it off, and couldn't wait to direct again. The chance came with A Warm December (which played the Chinese in May 1973) with Ester Anderson, and continued with Uptown Saturday Night (released in July 1974), with Bill Cosby.
Bill Cosby became the actor Poitier enjoyed working with the most. Cosby, who, while accepted by white audiences, could still get down with blacks as well. They made
Let's Do It Again (released in October 1975) together with Poitier directing, and same with A Piece of the Action (released in October 1977). After publishing a volume of his memoirs This Life in 1980, Poitier took a chance and directed Stir Crazy (released December 1980) with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor, even though he was not it the film. The dance contest film Fast Forward (released in February 1985),
was almost the last film he would direct.
Taking five years off, Poitier returned in the actioner
Little Nikita (released in March 1988) with River Phoenix. He would direct his old pal Bill Cosby in the comedy Ghost Dad (released in June 1990), then Poitier spent much of the rest of his career working in television. He played Thurgood Marshall in Separate But Equal aired over ABC in April 1991 with Burt Lancaster.
He starred in the caper movie Sneakers (released in September 1992) with Robert Redford, and got together with director Peter Bogdanovich for To Sir, with Love II aired over CBS in April 1996, and played a psychoanalyst to troubled teen lovers in David and Lisa aired over ABC in November 1998, which was produced by Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Productions. He wound things up with two curiously similar television films, both directed by Gregg Champion: The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn aired over CBS in May 1999 with Dianne Wiest, and The Last Bricklayer in America aired over CBS in September 2001. He published The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography in 2000.
While doing all of this, Poitier was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007, was given an honorary Oscar in 2002, and was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2006. In 208, he published Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter.
The 2017 edition of the TCM Classic Film Festival opened with a 50th Anniversary screening of In the Heat of the Night, after which, Poitier was given a standing ovation before a Q & A with fellow Heat filmmakers actor Lee Grant, director/producer Norman Jewison, composer Quincy Jones and producer Walter Mirisch. Poitier died of undisclosed causes in January 2022. |
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Sidney Poitier Forecourt block. Executed by John Tartaglia, Friday, June 23, 1967. 44 x 44 inches overall. |
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| Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, California. Sidney Poitier Forecourt ceremony, Friday, June 23, 1967. Mr. Poitier is discovering the joy of standing in wet cement, assisted by cement artist John Tartaglia on the right. |
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