Sidney Poitier Is an Artist

Sidney Poitier is an artist in every sense of the word. Aside from being an Academy Award winning actor, he is a writer, director, a thinker and critic, a humanitarian and a diplomat, and his presence as a cultural icon has long been acknowledged as one of protest and humanity (Sidney pp). Poitier's career has defined and documented the modern history of blacks in American film, and his depiction of proud and powerful characters has remained revolutionary (Sidney pp).

Poitier was born in Miami, Florida in 1927, but grew up in the small village of Cat Island, Bahamas (Sidney pp). His father was a poor tomato farmer who moved the family to the Bahamas' capital, Nassau, when Sidney was eleven years old (Sidney pp). Poitier has said that on Cat Island, he learned about the beauty of life and in Nassau, about the potential ugliness of life (Bowser pp). However, it was in Nassau that Sidney was first exposed to the cinema, and even at that young age, he understood the ability of cinema to expand one's view of reality (Sidney pp). Labeled "incorrigible" by his father, Sidney was shipped off at the age of fifteen to live with relatives in Miami, where he was "stung by his first encounter with racism" (Roberts pp).

A year later at the age of sixteen, he moved to New York and worked as a dishwasher and soon began working as a janitor for the American Negro Theater in exchange for acting lessons (Sidney pp). While there, Poitier became the understudy for Harry Belefonte in the play "Days of our Youth," and filling in for Belefonte one night, he made his public debut (Sidney pp). Then came a small role in the Greek comedy, "Lysistrata," and though nervous and unsure of his lines, he was a big hit, and continued to perform in plays until 1950, when he made his film debut in "No Way Out" (Sidney pp). The movie was the violent story of racial hatred, and made him a hero back home in the Bahamas (Sidney pp). In fact, when the colonial government decided it was too explosive and censored it, the protest that erupted gave birth to the political party that would eventually overturn British rule (Sidney pp).

During the 1950's, Poitier made some of the most important and controversial movies of the time (Sidney pp). In "Cry, the Beloved Country," he addressed the issues of racial equality and apartheid in South Africa, in "Blackboard Jungle," he confronted the issues of inner city education, and in "The Defiant Ones," he portrayed one of two escaped prisoners who must overcome issues of race in their struggle for freedom (Sidney pp). Poitier returned to the stage in 1959 to star as Walter Lee in Lorraine Hansberry's play, "A Raisin in the Sun" (Sidney pp). This play, the first by a black playwright to show on Broadway, was a moving reflection of black family life that had great popular appeal (Sidney pp). Poitier's performance was such a critical success that he was asked to star in the movie adaptation in 1961 (Sidney pp). In 1963, his performance in "Lilies of the Field" won him the Academy Award for Best Actor, the first black man to ever win the Oscar (Sidney pp). This success was followed by an electrifying performance in Norman Jewison's "In the Heat of the Night" (Sidney pp). Then, Poitier took on one of the greatest taboos of the time, interracial romantic relationships, in "Patch of Blue," and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," thus, by the end of the 1960's. Poitier was one of Hollywood's most popular stars (Sidney pp).

Poitier went on to direct "Buck and the Preacher," "Uptown Saturday Night," "Let's Do it Again," and the classic comedy "Stir Crazy" (Sidney pp). He returned to acting in 1988 to star in "Shoot to Kill" and in 1997, portrayed Nelson Mandela in the docudrama, "Mandela and De Klerk" (Sidney pp). For more than fifty years in the business and fifty-five roles to his credit, Poitier's strength and commitment continues to shine throughout his work (Sidney pp).