Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won Best Actress and Best Actor that night, marking a new first at the Oscars. There was a standing ovation for Sidney Poitier. "I accept this award in memory," he said on stage, "of all the African American actors and actresses who went before me in the difficult years, on whose shoulders I was privileged to stand to see where I might go." In 2002, nearly 75 years old, Sidney Poitier received an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. Harry Belafonte, 96, Dies Barrier-Breaking Singer, Actor and Activist In the 1950s, when segregation was still widespread, his ascent to the upper echelon of show business was historic. His debut as a director was Buck and the Preacher, a Western with comic touches, about freed slaves homesteading out West.Īs he moved further away from acting, he directed Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor in Stir Crazy in 1980 his biggest commercial hit as director. There was a romance, For the Love of Ivy, in which he played opposite the late singer and actress Abbey Lincoln. "And I insisted that if they wished my participation in the film, that they would have to re-write it to exemplify that."Īgainst the hot wind of criticism, Poitier set a new course, claiming new territory for Black performers: He starred in, and directed comedies with large Black casts - the best known are Uptown Saturday Night, and Let's Do It Again. "That kind of a scene, which would be electrifying on the screen, was always either avoided, not thought of," he said.
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To him, it was an opportunity to show real anger at a white man for his mistreatment, and it held meaning far beyond the movie house. Explore our comprehensive coverage of recent passings in the entertainment industry and beyond. Poitier says he refused to turn the other cheek. Stay informed with real-time updates on the latest celebrity deaths with The Sun. The celebrity deaths of 2022 come after a year of loss in 2021, which saw the. Sidney Poitier told WHYY's Fresh Air back in 2000 that the script had called for Tibbs to be slapped, and then leave. The celebrity deaths of 2022 include Sidney Poitier and more stars, actors and singers who have passed away this year. The white man is taken by surprise, and so were many moviegoing audiences.
In one iconic scene, Tibbs questions a murder suspect, a wealthy plantation owner, who slaps him - and the detective immediately slaps back.
In 1967, Poitier became the top box office draw with three popular movies out the same year: To Sir With Love, Guess Who's Coming To Dinner, and In The Heat of the Night, in which he played big city detective Virgil Tibbs. He made history with Lilies of the Field: In 1964, the same year as the passage of the Civil Rights Act, he became the first Black man ever to win as Oscar for Best Actor. Unfortunately, many of these deaths were untimely and shocked the world. Over the last 10 years, we have lost titans of the entertainment, sports and political world including the likes of Whitney Houston, Prince, Aretha Franklin, Muhammad Ali, and Nelson Mandela. Five years later, in Lilies of the Field, Poitier portrayed Homer Smith, a handyman reluctant to help a group of German nuns lacking bricks or money for a new chapel. Black Celebrities We Lost Between 2010 2020.
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