Breaking into Hollywood at a time when roles — let alone lead parts — for Black actors were rare, Sidney Poitier first made a mark on stage before shifting his focus to films. His first significant role was in the 1950 film noir No Way Out, which had him as a doctor whose racist patient (played by Richard Widmark) starts a riot. The film established Poitier’s trademark persona as sensitive and restrained, traits that distinguished him from most of his contemporaries.

The Defiant Ones

Stanley Kramer’s 1958 adventure drama starred Sidney Poitier and Tony Curtis as two escaped prisoners, one white and one Black, who are forced to work together in order to survive because they are handcuffed together. The film won Poitier the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival and also earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor, making him the first Black actor to earn a nomination in the category.

LILIES OF THE FIELD

Playing an itinerant worker whose presence among them convinces a group of nuns that he’s been sent by God to build them a new chapel, this Ralph Nelson-directed comedy-drama created history, with Poitier becoming the first Black performer to win an Oscar for Best Actor. A few decades later, when Denzel Washington won an Oscar for Best Actor, he cited Poitier as “an inspiration for all Black actors”. On Friday, after Poitier passed, Washington said, “He opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years.”

TO SIR, WITH LOVE

One of Poitier’s most seminal roles was in this 1967 film which has been on the must-watch list of generations and will continue to remain so. To Sir, With Love had the actor playing an idealistic teacher who attempts to win over his unpredictable and untamed students. Poitier’s magnetic and charismatic performance and the film’s title tune remain unforgettable.

IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT

One of Poitier’s most famous films, the 1967 racially-charged crime drama had the actor delivering one of his best performances. “Virgil Tibbs is the strongest role Poitier has had in a long time, and he plays it brilliantly and believably,” noted a review by Los Angeles Free Press.

GUESS WHO’s COMING TO DINNER

Directed by Stanley Kramer, this 1967 film had Poitier playing the part of a doctor and a widower who falls in love with a free-thinking white woman (played by Katharine Hepburn), while on vacation in Hawaii. She brings him back home to San Francisco to meet her family, but not everyone is open to the idea of an interracial couple. Poitier worked hard in bringing layered Black characters to screen, of which this film is a prime example. Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner may have come off as laboured in parts, but Poitier was spot on.

SIDNEY SAY

‣ I truly, truly try to be better tomorrow than I was today. And I mean better as simply a better human being, not a better actor, not a better anything, but just a better human being. That will please me well. And, when I die I will not be afraid of having lived.

‣ I never had an occasion to question colour, therefore, I only saw myself as what I was... a human being. I was the only Black person on the set. It was unusual for me to be in a circumstance in which every move I made was tantamount to representation of 18 million people.

‣ A person doesn’t have to change who he is to become better.

‣ Acting isn’t a game of pretend. It’s an exercise in being real.

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