The death of the famous actor Sidney Poitier, the pioneer of black issues in “Hollywood”, at the age of 94, has sparked a flood of messages of honor, from the government of the Bahamas from which he hails, to the US President, passing through black stars in the entertainment sector. The Prime Minister of the Bahamas summoned journalists to confirm the death of Sidney Poitier, “a cultural icon, actor, theater director, entrepreneur, human rights activist and diplomat.”
President Joe Biden paid tribute to the owner of a track record of success in films such as “Jesus Who’s Coming to Diner” and “In the Heat of the Night,” and said, “An unrepeatable actor of his generation, a committed man whose work was filled with vigor, strength, and elegance.” What changed the world on and off the big screen. Black American star Whoopi Goldberg also wrote on Twitter: “He showed us the path to the stars.”
Oscar-winning actress Viola Davis wrote on Instagram that Poitier, with his “violence, nature, strength, excellence, and pure energy…we knew that we blacks mattered,” borrowing the name of the Black Lives Matter movement against anti-black racism. .
Sidney Poitier became an American citizen after he was born in Miami, Florida on February 20, 1927.
After World War II, he succeeded in reserving a simple place for him on Broadway in 1946, before participating in a series of plays and films during the fifties of the twentieth century. However, the actual success began in 1964 when he was the first black American actor to win an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in the movie “Lilies of the Fields.”
“It was a long journey to get here,” he said while receiving the gilded statue at the time.
But at the age of 37, when the smiling actor won an Oscar, he was the only black star in Hollywood.
In 2009, former US President Barack Obama awarded the actor the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award in the United States, and praised Poitier; Because it “opened the doors to a generation of” black actors.
On television, Poitier has portrayed iconic figures in contemporary history, beginning with Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, and then as the first black US Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall.
In 1997, Poitier was appointed to an honorary position as Ambassador of the Bahamas to Japan.
And in 2002, four decades after the first prize, Sidney Poitier was awarded an honorary Oscar.
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