Pioneering actor Sidney Poitier lived a full life and on Friday, the 94-year-old gracefully bowed out, leaving an immortal memory as one of the most important figures to ever hit Hollywood.
Sidney Poitier news: Hollywood bids legend farewell
Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Bahamas Fred Mitchell confirmed the news.
For Poitier, an adventurous life ended where it started. The first black man to win an Oscar sighed his last breath in his home country, where he was born and raised by Bahamian farmers Evelyn and Reginald Poitier.
The actor’s cause of death, at this time, is unknown.
Actors and descendants of the historic feats he achieved as a black actor in 1940s Hollywood, took to social media to pay tributes following news of his passing.
Oh man, we just lost another acting legend and wonderful human being, Sir Sidney Poitier.
— BrooklynDad_Defiant! (@mmpadellan) January 7, 2022
RIP, Sir. 👑 🙏 pic.twitter.com/1y71G6unIJ
Sidney Poitier (1927-2022) with Harry Belafonte at March on Washington: pic.twitter.com/4Tu6Fo7msn
— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) January 7, 2022
We're deeply saddened to hear that the incomparable Sidney Poitier has passed away at the age of 94. A transformative cultural icon, he continually forged new paths to become one of the greatest actors to ever grace the stage and screen. pic.twitter.com/4L8ybOOsQK
— Criterion Collection (@Criterion) January 7, 2022
Sidney Poitier
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) January 7, 2022
Poor People's Campaign, Resurrection City, Washington, D.C., May 1968
Powerful beyond the stage and screen. pic.twitter.com/hEKRxGvoM2
Sidney Poitier. What a landmark actor. One of a kind. What a beautiful, gracious, warm, genuinely regal man. RIP, Sir. With love.
— Jeffrey Wright (@jfreewright) January 7, 2022
(đź“·Sam Falk/NYT) pic.twitter.com/5ZaKxxPdxw
Must-watch Poitier movies
Not only was Poitier an actor of prestige, he used his voice during the civil rights movement to call for equality and the abolishment of systematic racism.
Groundbreaking performances on To Sir, with Love, where he transforms the story of Eustace Ricardo Braithwaite, and In The Heat of the Night, which picked up five Oscars paved the way for black Drama phenomenons like Viola Davis and Denzel Washington.
Here are five must-watch Poitier movies:
- Lillies in the Field (1963)
- This Life (1980)
- Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter (2008)
- To Sir, With Love (1967)
- In The Heat of the Night (1967)
