Wikifeet sidney poitier autobiography

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He is currently married to Canadian-born actress Joanna Shimkus, and they have two children, Anika Poitier and Sydney Tamiia Poitier.

Death

Poitier died on January 6, 2022. His first performance at the American Negro Theater was simply ridiculed. I believed in brotherhood, in a free society.

Poitier took only a handful of film roles in the 1980s, but in 1991 he played Supreme Court justice Thurgood Marshall (1908–1993) in the television film Separate but Equal.

After appearing in the film version of Lorraine Hansberry's play A Raisin in the Sun, in a role he had developed on the stage, Poitier took the part of an American serviceman in Germany in Lilies of the Field (1963).

Marriages and Children

Poitier was married to Juanita Hardy from 1950 to 1965, and together they had four children: Beverly Poitier-Henderson, Pamela Poitier, Sherri Poitier and Gina Poitier.

Both received mixed reviews. He bombed!

wikifeet sidney poitier autobiography

He enjoyed a career breakthrough in 1955 with the popular Blackboard Jungle, portraying a troubled but gifted student at an inner-city school. Other notable later films include Sneakers (1992) and One Man, One Vote (1997). His success in that role landed him another in the play Anna Lucasta, and for the next few years Poitier toured the country with the all-Black production.

Sidney Poitier's Films

Early Career: 'No Way Out' to 'Blackboard Jungle'

Poitier made his Hollywood debut in the 1950 feature film No Way Out, and he followed in 1951 with Cry, the Beloved Country, a drama set in South Africa during the time of apartheid.

In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner he played a Black man engaged to a white woman in this groundbreaking look at interracial marriage. Poitier was rebuffed and marched out of the office with the cutting words, 

"Stop wasting people's time. He joined the American Negro Theater and later began finding roles in Hollywood. We find him as he describes us all, trying to face our end with character: 

That's what we're seeking.

Both this film and his impressive turn in the 1961 film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun helped make the actor a top star.

In 1964, Poitier claimed the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in Lilies of the Field (1963) — the first win by an African American actor in this category. The award was especially meaningful because it came on the same night that African Americans won both the Best Actor (Denzel Washington) and Best Actress (Halle Berry) awards.

The following year, he lit up the screen as a leading man in the musical Porgy and Bess, co-starring with Dorothy Dandridge. In 1992 he returned to the big screen for the comedy-drama Sneakers, which costarred Robert Redford (1937–) and River Phoenix (1970–1993). New York: Chelsea House, 1988.