Sidney Poitier, who broke through racial barriers as the first Black winner of the best actor Oscar for his role in"Lilies of the Field," and inspired a generation during the civil rights movement, has died at age 94, an official from the Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.
Poitier had won his history-making best actor Oscar for"Lilies of the Field" in 1963, playing a handyman who helps German nuns build a chapel in the desert. Five years before that Poitier had been the first Black man nominated for a lead actor Oscar for his role in"The Defiant Ones." "The dignity, normalcy, strength, excellence and sheer electricity you brought to your roles showed us that we, as Black folks, mattered!!!," Oscar winner Viola Davis tweeted.
As a director, Poitier worked with his friend Harry Belafonte and Bill Cosby in"Uptown Saturday Night" in 1974 and Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder in 1980's"Stir Crazy."Poitier grew up in the small Bahamian village of Cat Island and in Nassau before he moved to New York at 16, lying about his age to sign up for a short stint in the Army and then working at odd jobs, including dishwasher, while taking acting lessons.
In 1992, Poitier was given the Life Achievement Award by the American Film Institute, the most prestigious honor after the Oscar, joining recipients such as Bette Davis, Alfred Hitchcock, Fred Astaire, James Cagney and Orson Welles.
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