Sidney Poitier, black actor who made Oscars history, dies at 94

He was the first black movie star to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field in 1964

Poitier favoured projects that tackled bigotry and stereotypes, including his 1967 classics Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night

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US actor Sidney Poitier holds his honorary Oscar at the 74th Academy Awards in Hollywood in March 2002. Photo: AFP

Published: 12:57am, 8 Jan 2022Updated: 11:47am, 8 Jan 2022

Sidney Poitier, Hollywood’s first major Black-American movie star and the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar, has died at 94, prompting an outpouring of grief from the entertainment industry and beyond.

Stars including Denzel Washington along with current and past US presidents Joe Biden and Barack Obama led emotional tributes as news broke on Friday of the death of the celebrated thespian.

“He was a gentle man and opened doors for all of us that had been closed for years,” said Washington, a two-time Oscar winner.

“To Sir... with Love. Sir Sidney Poitier R.I.P. He showed us how to reach for the stars,” Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg said on Twitter.

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis said it was “with great sadness that I learned this morning of the passing of Sidney Poitier”, confirming the passing of the dual US-Bahamian citizen.

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