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Biography
Sidney Poitier was a Bahamian-American actor and film director. In 1964 he became the first African American to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Sidney Poitier, son of Bahamian citizens Reginald James Poitier and Evelyn Outten, was born in 1927 in Miami, Florida.[1][2] His birth was unexpected, as he arrived a few months premature and had to be hospitalized. The doctors were not certain that he would survive, but five months later, his parents were able to take him back home to the Bahamas. His birth in the U.S. entitled him to dual U.S.-Bahamian citizenship.
Sidney grew up in the Bahamas - first on Cat Island where the family lived initially, then in Nassau, where the family moved for the latter half of his childhood. By 15, he returned to Miami [3] to live with his brother Cyril and his family. Cyril had to be strict with young Sidney, as he had been sent by his parents due to his ongoing discipline issues.
He moved to New York City by the age of 16 and began working as a dishwasher at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.[4] Around this time, World War II had begun and the draft was on. Faking his age, he signed up for the war and was enlisted into the U.S. Army in 1943.[5] He soon realized he was in the wrong place, and was eventually granted a discharge.
When he returned, he joined the North American Negro Theater, but because of his tone deafness, could not sing like most of the performers. He had to work hard to learn the parts and overcome his disability, but he was determined to succeed. Through the end of the 1940s and into the mid-1950s, he worked his way from fledgling actor to being noticed by Broadway and then by Hollywood.
He married his first wife, Juanita Hardy, on April 29, 1950 in Manhattan, New York.[6] He had four daughters with Juanita before they divorced in 1965.
His roles in film expanded, although there was limited call for a black man in Hollywood, much less a lot of diversity in the types of roles he could play. In the beginning, like most early actors, he took what they gave him to play. However, as he settled in, he began to seek parts that were less two-dimensional and gave him an opportunity to be more than a simple "entertainer." In 1958, he became the first black man to receive a nomination for an Academy Award for the role of Best Actor for his part in The Defiant Ones. In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, a first for a black man in Hollywood.[7]
Sidney recognized the opportunity he was presented, but he also feared that he would be used as the "token black man" by Hollywood to prove they were accepting and open. He tried to choose his roles wisely and use his influence to help guide the way black people were viewed as well as to present the issues they struggled with. Sidney played Virgil Tibbs, a black police detective from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a small town in Mississippi, in the highly acclaimed and Academy Award-winning movie In the Heat of the Night starred Sidney and Rod Steiger.[8]
By the 1970s, he turned his hand to directing. He directed a number of films between 1972 and 1990; his most famous was Stir Crazy, with Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.
In 1974, he was bestowed with a Knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II.[9]
In 1976, he married his second wife, Joanna Shimkus, in Los Angeles, California.[10] Joanna was a model and actress, and over time became an interior designer as well. It seems that he took a bit of time off from Hollywood around this same time, having a gap of about ten years from 1978-79 until 1988 when he returned to the big screen. During this time, he and Joanna had two daughters together.
It was fitting that one of his last film performances was a sequel to perhaps one of his most memorable roles, that of a teacher who takes on social issues and sacrifices himself for the good of his students. To Sir, With Love II was released in 1996, and he appeared in one more film in 1997 before he semi-officially retired from Hollywood to take on a role as a Bahamian Ambassador to Japan. He held this role until 2007, at which point he retired altogether from politics.
On August 2009, President Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.[11] In 2016, he was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship for his achievements in the film industry. Sidney held his 90th birthday party in Beverly Hills in 2017, and it was attended by his wife, his ex-wife, and 27 of his children, grandchildren, godchildren, and a few close friends.
Sidney Poitier died at age 94 in his home in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California on 6 January 2022.[12]
Sources
- ↑ Unofficial copy of death certificate from Los Angeles County
- ↑ Passenger List: "New York State, Passenger and Crew Lists, 1917-1967"
The National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Washington, D.C.; NAI Number: 2848504; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787 - 2004; Record Group Number: 85; Series Number: A3998; NARA Roll Number: 767
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1277 #7841927 (accessed 17 March 2022)
Name: Sidney Poitier; Arrival Age: 35; Birth Date: 20 Feb 1927; Birth Place: Miami Fla; Arrival Date: 7 Sep 1962; Arrival Place: New York, New York, USA. - ↑ Passenger List: "Florida, U.S., Arriving and Departing Passenger and Crew Lists, 1898-1963"
The National Archives At Washington, D.c.; Washington, D.c.; Series Title: U.s. Citizen Passenger Lists of Vessels Arriving At Miami, Florida; Record Group Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record Group Number: 85
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 8842 #10124896 (accessed 17 March 2022)
Name: Sioney Poitier; Gender: Male; Marital status: Single; Age: 16; Birth Date: 20 Feb 1927; Record Type: Arrival; Arrival Date: 13 Feb 1943; Arrival Place: Miami, Florida, USA; Ship: Ena K; Description: A3622 - Arriving At Miami, Florida, 1904 - 1949; Catalog Number: 2774842. - ↑ Military: "U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947"
National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; WWII Draft Registration Cards for New York City, 10/16/1940 - 03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 2238 #193274074 (accessed 17 March 2022)
Name: Sidney Potier; Race: Negro (Black); Age: 18; Birth Date: 11 Nov 1925; Birth Place: Miami, Florida; Registration Date: 20 Nov 1943; Registration Place: Brooklyn, Kings, New York; Employer: Waldorf Astoria; Height: 6 3; Weight: 175; Complexion: Dark brown; Hair Color: Black; Eye Color: Black; Next of Kin: Poitier;
Household Members Age:
Sidney Potier 18. - ↑ "United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946," database, FamilySearch : 5 December 2014, Sidney Poitier, enlisted 01 Dec 1943, New York City, New York, United States; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946," database, The National Archives: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) (http://aad.archives.gov : National Archives and Records Administration, 2002); NARA NAID 126323, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
- ↑ * Marriage: "New York, New York, U.S., Marriage License Indexes, 1907-2018"
New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Manhattan; Volume Number: 11
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 61406 #488742 (accessed 17 March 2022)
Sidney Portier marriage to Juanita Hardy on 23 Mar 1951. - ↑ [https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/1964 Academy Awards Database
- ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Heat_of_the_Night_(film)
- ↑ "Poitier", The Independent, Long Beach California, 24 Jun 1974, Mon, p. 2 Free View of Article
- ↑ Marriage: "California, U.S., Marriage Index, 1960-1985"
Ancestry Sharing Link - Ancestry Record 1144 #3756454 (accessed 17 March 2022)
Sidney Poitier (48) marriage to Joanna M Shimkus on 23 Jan 1976 in Los Angeles, California, USA.> - ↑ https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/campaign/medal-of-freedom
- ↑ Unofficial copy of death certificate from Los Angeles County
- "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVP2-XPDT : accessed 28 June 2019), Mr Sidney Poitier in entry for Cyril Poitier, Florida, United States, 20 Nov 1991; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Miami Herald, The, born-digital text.
- "United States, GenealogyBank Obituaries, 1980-2014," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QK7L-D693 : accessed 28 June 2019), Sidney Poitier in entry for Brother Cyril Poitier, San Diego, California, United States, 21 Nov 1991; from "Recent Newspaper Obituaries (1977 - Today)," database, GenealogyBank.com (http://www.genealogybank.com : 2014); citing Evening Tribune, born-digital text.
- "Oscars honor milestones in black history", by Dorothy Jenkins Fields, The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, 9 Mar 2014, Sun, p. NC14 Free View of Article
- Wikipedia: Sidney Poitier
- Wikidata: Item Q104049, en:Wikipedia
