DEATH OF SIDNEY POITIER. A true pioneer of American cinema, Sidney Poitier died at the age of 94. He is known as the first black comedian to be awarded the Oscar for Best Actor in 1964.
The essential
Sidney Poitier is dead at the age of 94, announced several American media this Friday, January 7, 2022. He is a legend of American cinema and a true pioneer who has passed away, in circumstances which have not been specified for the moment. Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win the Oscar for best actor: he was awarded for his role in “Le Lys des champs”, in 1964.
Sidney Poitier was considered a pioneer of black American cinema. In addition to being the first African-American actor to receive the Oscar for Best Actor, he is considered by the American Film Institute to be one of the greatest actors of all time. Among his unmissable films are “La Chaine”, “Un raisin au soleil”, “Le Lys des Champs” or “In the heat of the night”. Also a director, he has made films such as “Buck and his accomplice”, “La folie aux trousses” or “Papa est un fantôme”.
Live
<!– AMP-LIVE-REMOVE-ME –
17:14 – Sidney Poitier was also a director
Known as an actor, Sidney Poitier has also made passages behind the camera. He made nine films during his career: the first, in 1972, is “Buck and his accomplice”. Among his best-known titles as a filmmaker, let us also quote “Faut s’faire la malle” (1980), “La folie aux trousses” (1982) or “Papa est un fantôme” (1990). However, it was his acting career that left a greater mark on the minds of the spectators.
17:01 – “We have lost an icon” announces the Deputy Prime Minister of the Bahamas
Sidney Poitier was originally from the Bahamas. It is no surprise that the announcement of his death was confirmed by the Deputy Prime Minister of the Caribbean country, on Facebook this Friday, January 7, 2022: “We have lost an icon, a hero, a mentor, a fighter, and a national treasure “. The exact causes of his death have not been specified.
4:50 pm – In which films did Sidney Poitier play?
Sidney Poitier leaves behind a remarkable career, considered by the American Film Institute as one of the best American actors. The first to completely shake up racial stereotypes in Hollywood, the comedian was the first African-American actor to be nominated for an Oscar for best actor, for Chain in 1958, before landing the famous sesame six years later, for Lily of the fields. Le Figaro also recalls that he is the first black actor to kiss a white woman in the cinema, in Guess who’s coming to dinner? in 1968. At the time, this scene caused a scandal.
<!– AMP-LIVE-REMOVE-ME –
Born February 20, 1927 in Miami and died January 7, 2022, Sidney Poitier is the first black actor to receive an Oscar for “The Lily of the Fields” in 1964, and was the model of a whole generation in the United States. His first role in the cinema deals with the question of racism in “The Door opens” in 1950. He is recognized by the public thanks to “Seed of violence” (1955) and already comes close to the Oscar with “The Chain”. Perhaps locked in his engaged roles, Sidney Poitier seems to run out of steam in the 1960s. He then goes behind the camera more often. He was also in charge of human rights at Unesco.
Sidney Poitier is the son of a tomato farmer, Reginald James Poitier and Evelyn Outten. Name of French origin, it comes from an ancestor who was the slave of the planter Charles Leonard Poitier. On his death, the slaves take the name of their master, as is customary. With his parents, on Cat Island in the Bahamas, he lived in poverty, then he was sent to the United States, to Miami, at the age of 15. He then moved to New York at 18 and did menial jobs. He decides to enter the army by lying about his age so as not to be homeless. He becomes a medical assistant in a psychiatric hospital. Quickly bored, he simulates madness then confesses his lie, he is thus dismissed from the army. Subsequently, he tries an audition at the American Negro Theater where he is refused. In fact, he works tirelessly on his accent and his …