OT: RIP Sidney Poitier

What an amazing actor and remarkable man. RIP Sidney Poitier.

There are probably a half dozen movies I watch every time they come on and one is In the Heat of the Night. Great actor, great humanitarian. 

For a dark-skinned actor like Poitier, finding complex roles in the 1950s was difficult. 

"(Blacks) were so new in Hollywood. There was almost no frame of reference for us except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters," Poitier told Winfrey. "I had in mind what was expected of me, not just what other Blacks expected but what my mother and father expected. And what I expected of myself."

As he cemented his place in American cinema with films like "Lilies of the Field," which earned him an Oscar, and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," Pointier was fully aware many people of color, including viewers and fellow artists, looked up to him.

"It's been an enormous responsibility," Poitier told Winfrey. "And I accepted it, and I lived in a way that showed how I respected that responsibility. I had to.

In order for others to come behind me, there were certain things I had to do." 

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I'm so glad someone posted up a thread on Poitier...What an actor and the man deserves tremendous respect for what he did and how he did it to try and advance this country from the Jim Crow era. 

To Sir with Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and Heat of the Night are powerfully epic. 

RIP man, job well done. 

I always enjoyed the roles he played,  powerful actor,  rip.

He was before my time, what movies is he in thar I should check out? Ty 

The Bedford IncidentHim and Richard Widmark were remarkable

@"FLVike" said:

The Bedford IncidentHim and Richard Widmark were remarkable

Widmark and Poitier became lifelong friends when they met making Poitier's first film "No Way Out" (a must-see btw) ... with real-life liberal Widmark playing a redneck bigot swearing revenge on Poitier's doctor character for failing to save his injured brother.  According to IMDB, Widmark was so uncomfortable with some of the lines he had to say that after the director cut scenes Widmark apologized to Poitier before having to insult him again once the cameras were rolling.  Watching this movie on TCM once they mentioned that Poitier credited Widmark and his wife as being the first white people in Hollywood to have him over for dinner.

@"pattersaur" said: He was before my time, what movies is he in thar I should check out? Ty 

As mentioned above, "No Way Out" and "The Bedford Incident"

"The Defiant Ones":  Poitier and Tony Curtis as chain gang escapees inventing the now run-into-the-ground trope of "racist-handcuffed-to-black-guy"

"Blackboard Jungle"  OK, so he's 27 playing a high school student.  He and star Glenn Ford as the teacher make it work.  Also notable for being one of the first movies to use rock'n'roll in the soundtrack.