Sidney Poitier KBE (/ˈpwÉ'Ë tieɪ/; born February 20, 1927) is a
Bahamian-American actor, film director, and ambassador. In 1964
Poitier became the first Black male and Afro-Bahamian actor to win an
Academy Award for Best Actor, having been nominated for the award
twice. He is the oldest living and earliest surviving Best Actor
Academy Award winner.In addition, he was nominated six times for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (four times under Motion Picture
Drama, and once for both Miniseries or Television Film, and Motion
Picture Musical or Comedy) and the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts Award (BAFTA) for Best Foreign Actor, winning each
once. From 1997 to 2007, he served as the Bahamian Ambassador to
Japan.His entire family lived in the Bahamas, then still a British
colony, but Poitier was born unexpectedly in Miami while they were
visiting for the weekend, which automatically granted him American
citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, but moved to New York when he
was 16. He joined the North American Negro Theatre, landing his
breakthrough film role as an incorrigible high school student in the
1955 film Blackboard Jungle.In 1958, Poitier starred with Tony Curtis
in the critically acclaimed The Defiant Ones as chained-together
convicts who escape and must cooperate. Each received a nomination for
the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Poitier's being the first for a
black actor, as well as nominations for the BAFTAs, which Poitier won.
In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe
Award for Best Actor[a] for his role in Lilies of the Field (1963) in
which he played a handyman who stays with and helps a group of
German-speaking nuns build a chapel. Poitier also received critical
acclaim for A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and A Patch of Blue (1965).
Bahamian-American actor, film director, and ambassador. In 1964
Poitier became the first Black male and Afro-Bahamian actor to win an
Academy Award for Best Actor, having been nominated for the award
twice. He is the oldest living and earliest surviving Best Actor
Academy Award winner.In addition, he was nominated six times for the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor (four times under Motion Picture
Drama, and once for both Miniseries or Television Film, and Motion
Picture Musical or Comedy) and the British Academy of Film and
Television Arts Award (BAFTA) for Best Foreign Actor, winning each
once. From 1997 to 2007, he served as the Bahamian Ambassador to
Japan.His entire family lived in the Bahamas, then still a British
colony, but Poitier was born unexpectedly in Miami while they were
visiting for the weekend, which automatically granted him American
citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, but moved to New York when he
was 16. He joined the North American Negro Theatre, landing his
breakthrough film role as an incorrigible high school student in the
1955 film Blackboard Jungle.In 1958, Poitier starred with Tony Curtis
in the critically acclaimed The Defiant Ones as chained-together
convicts who escape and must cooperate. Each received a nomination for
the Academy Award for Best Actor, with Poitier's being the first for a
black actor, as well as nominations for the BAFTAs, which Poitier won.
In 1964, he won the Academy Award for Best Actor and the Golden Globe
Award for Best Actor[a] for his role in Lilies of the Field (1963) in
which he played a handyman who stays with and helps a group of
German-speaking nuns build a chapel. Poitier also received critical
acclaim for A Raisin in the Sun (1961) and A Patch of Blue (1965).
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