Celebrities Mourn Sidney Poitier, a Titan of Hollywood’s Golden Age

Sidney Poitier, the Bahamian-American actor who made history in 1964 when he became the first Black man to win an Oscar for Best Actor, has passed away at the age of 94.

Born in Miami and raised in the Bahamas, Poitier began acting as a teenager and appeared in his breakout film role at the age of 18, Blackboard Jungle, in which he played a musically talented high school rebel. From then on, the actor appeared in a variety of social drama films that interrogated the concept of interraciality. He received his first Oscar nomination in 1958, at the age of 21, for his star turn in The Defiant Ones alongside Tony Curtis. His first Oscar (and Golden Globe) came in 1964, for his performance in Lilies of the Field. With the win, Poitier became the first Black man to win the trophy for Best Actor at the Academy Awards, a feat which would not come again until 2001 when Denzel Washington won for Training Day. “I’ll always be chasing you, Sidney. I’ll always be following in your footsteps. There’s nothing I would rather do, sir,” Washington said to Poitier at the time of his win. Out of all male Oscar winners, Poitier was the oldest living at the time of his death in January 2022.

Poitier also starred in Porgy & Bess, A Raisin in the Sun (the film adaptation, though he also starred in the very first stage production of the play), and A Patch of Blue, all of which were acclaimed performances in the late ‘50s and early ‘60s. But perhaps his three most popular performances, all of which were part of films that dealt with the heated race relations in the 20th century, are for To Sir, with Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night. He also starred alongside Paul Newman and his romantic partner Diahann Carroll in the 1961 film Paris Blues.

The actor was a champion of the Civil Rights movement, appearing at the March on Washington in 1963 alongside Harry Belafonte. He also served as the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007.

Upon the news of his passing confirmed by Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell, Poitier’s fans and collaborators mourned on social media, remembering him for his talent, his grace, and his kindness.