NEW YORK — Sidney Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who reworked how Black individuals have been portrayed on display screen, turned the primary Black actor to win an Academy Award for greatest lead efficiency and the primary to be a high box-office draw, has died. He was 94.
Poitier, winner of the Greatest Actor Oscar in 1964 for “Lilies of the Subject,” died Thursday within the Bahamas, in keeping with Eugene Torchon-Newry, appearing director common of the Ministry of Overseas Affairs within the Bahamas.
Few film stars, Black or white, had such an affect each on and off the display screen. Earlier than Poitier, the son of Bahamian tomato farmers, no Black actor had a sustained profession as a lead performer or might get a movie produced primarily based on his personal star energy. Earlier than Poitier, few Black actors have been permitted a break from the stereotypes of bug-eyed servants and grinning entertainers. Earlier than Poitier, Hollywood filmmakers not often even tried to inform a Black individual’s story.
