Poitier, Sidney
1927-2022 · Contribution: 1964
Actor & Director
First Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor

Portraits are AI-generated interpretations, not photographs.
Quick facts
- Born
- 1927
- Active since
- 1950
- Category
- Arts, Music & Entertainment Tech
- Best known for
- First Black Best Actor winner"Lilies of the Field"Dignified leading roles
Impact on the world
Poitier transformed the image of Black men in American film, insisting on roles of dignity in an era of demeaning stereotypes. His Best Actor win was a watershed for Hollywood.
Sources
- Oprah.com
2 more sources and references are available to members.
Related visionaries
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Dee, Ruby (Ruby Ann Wallace)
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Tyson, Cicely Louise
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