Sad Death: Sidney Poitier Made the World a Better Place

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The Much Loved Sidney Poitier

Every artist hopes to make the world a better place. Sidney Poitier actually did

It was partly timing. When the actor, who died Friday, made his film debut in 1950’s “No Way Out,” Hollywood was ready to tackle the issue of racial equality. After centuries of bigotry, 20th century mass media like radio and newsreels alerted the public to cases of blatant prejudice like the 1931 Scottsboro trial. Consciousness was slowly being raised by negative examples as well as positive ones, such as the contributions of Black people during World War II.

So Hollywood cautiously opened the gates. There were other Black actors in lead film roles, including James Edwards and Harry Belafonte, but they were rare. It was Poitier who captured the public imagination, with his soft but powerful voice, his precise way of speaking (with that slight, unidentifiable accent from the Bahamas) and, crucially, his integrity.

Poitier was given opportunities in Hollywood; more important is what he did with them

A Dec. 11, 1957 article in Variety announced his casting in the film “Porgy and Bess.” Poitier said he’d originally turned down the role, due to “the fear that if improperly handled, ‘Porgy and Bess’ could conceivably be, to my mind, injurious to Negroes.”

This was a simple but extraordinary statement. Poitier at that point wasn’t a major star, having made only six films in seven years; his breakthrough in the 1958 “The Defiant Ones” was still a year away. And most actors, especially Black actors in the 1950s, were happy to get any work at all. What’s more, this was a high-profile project, based on the Gershwins-DuBose Heyward prestige hit, directed by Otto Preminger and produced by Samuel Goldwyn. But he had his principles and he stuck to them.

That 1957 interview gave a key clue to his entire career. As his films entertained people around the world, they also raised consciousness.

Liberals sometimes sniffed that his roles in “Lilies of the Field,” “A Patch of Blue” and “To Sir With Love,” among others, were too idealistic. The 1967 “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” hinges on the question whether Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy will approve Poitier’s engagement to their daughter (Katherine Houghton). The joke among Hollywood sophisticates was that SHE wasn’t good enough for HIM.

But those criticisms are a deep misreading of the national and international mood. In June 1967 — six months before the film was released — the Supreme Court overturned state laws against interracial marriage; those laws were still in effect in 17 states. While the message of tolerance in “Guess Who’s Coming” may seem hoary, it was an eye-opener to many.

Also controversial that year was “In the Heat of the Night,” which won the best-picture Oscar. As a northern detective involved in a murder investigation in Mississippi, Poitier’s character exhibited all of the actor’s virtues: Intelligence, decency, humor, sensitivity and a boatload of charisma.

His character, Virgil Tibbs, maintains composure as he is hampered in his investigation by bigots. At one point, a powerful local Caucasian man slaps Tibbs — who slaps him back. It’s hard to convey how shocking that was to some audiences — and cathartic to others.

The movie came out only three years after America’s Civil Rights Act, which was passed in 1964 after a D.C. debate about the pros and cons of equal rights. Yes, more than one-fourth of Congress had voted against it.

In 2001, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced that Poitier would receive an honorary Oscar “in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.” A few months before the ceremony, he attended the annual Nominees Luncheon, which is always jam-packed with the biggest names in the film business. That crowd theoretically shouldn’t be star-struck, but Poitier inspired an unusual sense of awe and respect. When his name was called, he got the only standing ovation I had ever seen at that event.

As news events frequently remind us, racial equality is still an ongoing struggle, even after all these years. But Poitier enlightened audiences, by bringing three-dimensional characters to people who may have never met a Black person, much less enjoyed their company for a few hours. He played characters that you wanted to know.

Sidney Poitier made a difference. And that’s the greatest thing you can say about any artist, or any human

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We Were Just Destined to Be

Inside Sidney Poitier and Joanna Shimkus' 46-Year Marriage

The groundbreaking actor died Thursday night at age 94, PEOPLE confirmed Friday morning. Known for films like Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night and Lilies of the Field, Poitier became the first-ever Black man to win the Best Actor Oscar on April 13, 1964.

Poitier first married Juanita Hardy in 1950 and they divorced in 1965. They shared four daughters: Beverly, Pamela, Sherri and Gina. He later wed Shimkus, a Canadian actress, in 1976, and they went on to have two daughters together: Anika and Sydney.

While receiving a lifetime achievement award in 2016, Poitier told PEOPLE, "My wife and my children mean the most to me." Shimkus added at the time of their secret to a lasting relationship: "We've been together 49 years and I'm a good cook. I cook every night. ... I take good care of him."

In an emotional interview with Oprah Winfrey for O, The Oprah Magazine's October 2000 issue, Poitier discussed his marriage and parenting style, admitting his kids "would be unlikely to say that I'm easy" as a dad. As for Shimkus: "She would tell you that I'm a perfectionist to a degree and that I ask of others a certain kind of loyalty to and respect for relationships. My wife would say that, on occasion, I'm a little tough on the children."

He continued at the time, "In what I expect and demand of them in terms of values. My children respect my values, and I can see some of those values in them. That pleases me, because my values are not constricting. They are human values. My kids are quite intelligent — all six of them."

In the American Masters PBS documentary Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light, Shimkus recalled in a 1998 interview their wedding day, which saw their two daughters as flower girls and actor Harry Belafonte as the groom's best man. When asked about whether navigating an interracial relationship provided issues in their day-to-day lives, she said it wasn't an issue with them.

"I guess we were just destined to be [together]," she said at the time.

"I grew up in Canada and I never really had any kind of prejudice — it's unlike America. I just never had those feelings. And we've never had a problem, actually. It could be that we lead a very quiet life. It could be that it's just the way it is, I don't really know. But I never really did see him as a Black man. I mean, I know he is Black, but I just saw him as a man, and he was just a wonderful person. An amazing human being."

She also shared what first attracted her to Poitier.

"The thing that attracted me to him the most, I think, is his integrity and his honesty [and] his loyalty to his family. He's just an amazing human being. He's just a good, good, good person," she said, adding, "And he's cute too, yes! And he was especially gorgeous then. He still is too now, but he was very, very attractive then."

When Poitier received the lifetime achievement award at the 2016 BAFTA Awards but was unable to travel to London to accept the award due to health concerns, he was presented his award at his Los Angeles home. In his speech at the time, he acknowledged his loved ones.

"Today my cup runneth over because I am here with my daughter and the future filmmakers of the world in celebration of this wonderful art form," Poitier said. "I have been very lucky. I have tried to be a good human being, a good actor, a good director, a good filmmaker. My wife is with me here. My wife, my children and my friends have been keeping me on my feet. To my family, my life force, I am nothing without you. And all of you, thank you for your warm embrace and this extraordinary moment and memory I shall cherish."

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Poitier broke racial barriers in 1964 when he took home the best actor Oscar for his leading role in the 1964 film, Lillie's of the Field



Poitner, picture with (L-R) daughter Anikia, wife Joanna Shimkus and daughter Sydney

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To Sidney, With Love

Sidney Poitier wasn’t just an actor—but he was a really great actor

Just one week into 2022, another titan of cinema has fallen. On Thursday, January 6, Sidney Poitier—the first Black man to ever win the Oscar for best actor—died at 94

The timing of Poitier’s loss poetically and painfully echoes that of another Black icon of cinema, Cicely Tyson, who died in January of last year. Like Tyson, Poitier projected superhuman levels of grace both on and off camera. They both became civil rights activists, not necessarily by choice but because their era demanded it, and used their influence as movie stars to advocate for tangible change for Black people across the nation. Both Tyson and Poitier were synonymous with Black excellence—a testament not only to all that we could achieve, but all that we could do for others in the process.

In the ’50s and ’60s, Poitier knew that as Hollywood’s sole Black leading man, everyone was constantly watching him—looking for him to set an example. Poitier was “the only one,” he has been quoted as saying. “I felt very much as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made,” he once wrote. While this responsibility may sound crushing, Poitier rose to the occasion, imbuing all of his roles with a dignity that stretched beyond whatever character he happened to be playing, whether doctor or prisoner.

And while he’ll certainly be remembered for his poise, it would be a shame to forget what a versatile, nuanced, and engaging actor Poitier was as well. To Sir, With Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—three vastly different movies—were all released in 1967, making him Hollywood’s top box-office star at the time. In the first, Poitier played Mark Thackeray, an immigrant to Britain and unwitting high school teacher tasked with getting a classroom of unruly students on his side. With Mark, Poitier utilized his soft charm, his stoic patience, and his commanding presence to effectively create the “inspiring teacher” archetype that films like Dead Poets Society and Mona Lisa Smile have been emulating ever since.

And then there’s In the Heat of the Night, where Poitier played Virgil Tibbs, the stone-cold, tough-as-nails Philadelphia detective who finds himself investigating a murder in Mississippi. Looking stark Southern racism square in the eye, Poitier never loses his cool, whether he’s slapping plantation owner Endicott across the jaw, or, after being called a slur, delivering the film’s most iconic line: “They call me Mr. Tibbs.” That incredible composure resonated with audiences Black and white, winning In the Heat of the Night the Oscar for best picture.

In the interracial marriage drama Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, Poitier plays Dr. John Wade Prentice—a heretofore model minority who upsets his family by marrying a white woman—and shows his fiery passion, the gravitas that made him a force to be reckoned with. In a rousing monologue, Poitier gets to speak for an entire generation—really, every generation battling against the antiquated and close-minded ways of the past. He lets loose; he rips; he roars at his father, played by Roy E. Glenn Sr., fighting for his right to love whomever he wants. “You don’t own me,” Poitier spits out. “You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it’s got to be. And not until your whole generation has laid down and died will the dead weight of you be off our backs.”

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