Profile of Sidney Poitier on Famous Like Me

Sidney Poitier, KBE (born February 20, 1927) is a Bahamian American actor. He was born in Miami, Florida and grew up in poverty on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field and was the first actor of African descent to win this award. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. He received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2002.

His other films include:

• The Defiant Ones, for which he won the British Academy Award for Best Actor in 1958.
• Porgy and Bess, based on the famous opera, in the title role of Porgy along side Dorothy Dandridge as Bess. His on-screen singing voice was provided by opera singer Robert McFerrin, the father of Bobby McFerrin.
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, a film about an inter-racial romance and a white liberal's reaction to it
• A Patch of Blue, about a blind white girl and a black man who is moved to help her to a better life
• To Sir, with Love, a fact-based movie about a young teacher in an inner-city neighbourhood
• In the Heat of the Night about a murder investigation in a small Mississippi town.

He acted in the first run of "Raisin in the Sun" on Broadway in 1959, and in its Hollywood adaptation in 1961.

Married first to Juanita Hardy from April 29, 1950 - 1965, and he is currently married to Canadian-born former actress Joanna Shimkus since January 23, 1976. He has 4 children by his first marriage and 2 children by his second marriage.

In addition to authoring This Life (1980) and The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000), Poitier has also served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan since April of 1997.

He is mentioned extensively in John Guare's play Six Degrees of Separation, as one of the characters (falsely) claims to be his son.

Poitier was named appointed a Knight of the British Empire in 1974. It is regularly mistaken that this was an honourary award but since Poitier is a citizen of the Bahamas (which recognise the British Honour System) it is a bonafide knighthood. Althought this allows him to use the title "Sir" he rarely or never employs it himself. It has occasionally been used by people for him while he was on diplomatic work for the Bahamas. The Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs lists him as "His Excellency Sir Sidney Poitier"

Awards and recognition

Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album

• Grammy Awards of 2001
  • Rick Harris, John Runnette (producers) & Sidney Poitier for The Measure of a Man

NAACP Image Award - Hall of Fame Award

• 2001: Sidney Poitier

NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special

• 2000: Sidney Poitier, The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn

Kennedy Center Honors

• 1995: Sidney Poitier

AFI Life Achievement Award

• 1992: Sidney Poitier

Golden Globe Awards: Film, Best Actor, Drama

• 1964: Sidney Poitier, Lilies of the Field

Academy Award for Best Actor 

• 1963: Sidney Poitier for Lilies of the Field
• 1958: Sidney Poitier for The Defiant Ones

BAFTA Award for Best Actor

• 1958: Foreign: Sidney Poitier for The Defiant Ones

British Honours System

• Appointed an Honorary Knight of the Britsh Empire in 1974.

Filmography

• From Whence Cometh My Help (1949) (documentary)
• No Way Out (1950)
• Cry, the Beloved Country (1951)
• Red Ball Express (1952)
• Go, Man, Go! (1954)
• Blackboard Jungle (1955)
• Good-bye, My Lady (1956)
• Edge of the City (1957)
• Something of Value (1957)
• Band of Angels (1957)
• Virgin Island (1958)
• The Mark of the Hawk (1958)
• The Defiant Ones (1958)
• Porgy and Bess (1959)
• All the Young Men (1960)
• A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
• Paris Blues (1961)
• Pressure Point (1962)
• The Long Ships (1963)
• Lilies of the Field (1963)
• The Bedford Incident (1965)
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
• A Patch of Blue (1965)
• The Slender Thread (1965)
• Duel at Diablo (1966)
• To Sir, with Love (1967)
• In the Heat of the Night (1967)
• Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
• For Love of Ivy (1968)
• The Lost Man (1969)
• King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (documentary) (narrator)
• They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970)
• Brother John (1971)
• The Organization (1971)
• Buck and the Preacher (1972) (also director)
• A Warm December (1973) (also director)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974) (also director)
• Let's Do It Again (1975) (also director)
• The Wilby Conspiracy (1975)
• A Piece of the Action (1977) (also director)
• Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist (1979) (short subject) (narrator)
• Stir Crazy (1980) (director)
• Hanky Panky (1982) (director)
• Fast Forward (1985) (director)
• Bopha! (1986) (documentary) (narrator)
• Shoot to Kill (1988)
• Little Nikita (1988)
• Ghost Dad (1990) (director)
• Sneakers (1992)
• A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
• Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick (1996) (documentary)
• The Jackal (1997)
• Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001) (documentary) (narrator)
• Tell Them Who You Are (2004) (documentary)

This content from Wikipedia is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Sidney Poitier