Guide Note

Sidney Poitier is an actor,director and singer who won the Academy Award for "Best Actor" for his portrayal of the itinerant worker Homer Smith in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.

Fast Facts

1. In Porgy and Bess his voice was dubbed by opera singer Robert McFerrin, Sr
2. Married: Joanna Simkus
3. Is alleged to have been born aboard a ship on the way to Miami, Florida
4. Grew up on Cat Island, population 1,500
5. Is the only actor to have five of his films on the AFI's Top 100 Inspiring Films
6. Had a 10 year affair with Diahann Carroll which almost ended his 2nd marriage
7. Former member of the United States Army
8. Is a non-resident Bahamian ambassador to Japan

Raised on a small Bahamian island, Poitier began acting in the late 1940s after leaving the U.S. Army. He first appeared in the 1950 Joseph Mankiewicz film No Way Out and had his first breakout role at the age of 27 by playing a high school delinquent in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle. In 1958, he became the first black actor ever nominated for a competitive Academy Award, for his role as escaped prisoner Noah Cullen in The Defiant Ones, and in 1963, became the first black actor to win the Academy Award for "Best Actor" for Lilies in the Field. Through these successes, Poitier became Hollywood's first African-American leading man, and his films In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, To Sir, With Love and A Patch of Blue have become American classics. He has also directed several films, including the 1980 Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor comedy Stir Crazy.