Legendary Hollywood actor Sidney Poitier has died.
He was 94.
Poitier was best known for his roles in the Hollywood movies, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “In the Heat of the Night,” and “Lilies of the Field,” the latter for which he became the first Black man to win a Best Actor Oscar.
The news was announced by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, prompting tributes from the world of entertainment.
Poitier was born prematurely to Bahamian parents in Miami while his parents were visiting in February 1927. He was automatically granted U.S. citizenship. Poitier spent his early years in the Bahamas before moving permanently to the U.S. when he was 15.
After a brief time with the U.S. Army, Poitier moved to New York, where he joined the American Negro Theater. Poitier directed several films, including “Buck and the Preacher” and “Stir Crazy.”
Poitier made a point of not taking stereotypical roles being offered to Black actors in Hollywood at the time. In a 1967 interview, he said, “the kind of Negro played on the screen was always negative, buffoons, clowns, shuffling butlers, really misfits. This was the background when I came along 20 years ago and I chose not to be a party to the stereotyping.”
He added, “I want people to feel when they leave the theater that life and human beings are worthwhile. That is my only philosophy about the pictures I do.”
Poitier served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007.
In 2009, then-President Barack Obama presented him the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, lauding him for “breaking racial barriers.”
Poitier is survived by his wife, Joanna Shimkus and six daughters.
