Update (Jan. 19, 2022): According to a variety of news reports Tuesday, a death certificate for legendary actor Sidney Poitier revealed he died of heart failure at 94. Underlying health issues contributing to his death include dementia and heart failure, according to his death certificate.
Poitier is survived by his wife, a retired actor from Canada named Joanna Shimkus, as well as five daughters.
Original Story (Jan. 7, 2022): According to the acting director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bahamas, groundbreaking actor Sidney Poitier died Thursday at the age of 94. The video above includes a statement from the prime minister of the Bahamas, as well as a growing memorial at Poitier’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He is perhaps most well-known for becoming the first black man to win the Oscar for “Best Actor”. The win came in 1964 for his performance in “Lilies of the Field.” Before Poitier, the only Black actor to win a competitive Oscar was Hattie McDaniel. She won Best Supporting Actress in 1939 for her performance in “Gone With the Wind.”
The Oscar was just one of the highlights of what was a prolific acting career for Poitier. That career peaked in 1967 when he appeared in three of the year’s most notable movies:
- “To Sir, With Love”: Poitier starred as a school teacher who wins over his unruly students at a London secondary school.
- “In the Heat of the Night”: Poitier played a determined police detective.
- “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”: Poitier played a prominent doctor who wishes to marry a young white woman he only recently met.
It was the variety of roles Poitier played that may have been even more significant than his performances. Before Poitier, few Black actors were able to get roles outside the stereotypes of servants or entertainers. Hollywood filmmakers rarely even attempted to tell a Black person’s story.
Theater owners named Poitier the No. 1 star of 1967, making him the first Black actor to top the list. Fast forward to 2002, he won a lifetime achievement award from the American Film Institute, as well as a special Academy Award. And in 2009, then-President Barack Obama awarded Poitier the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Poitier “not only entertained but enlightened … revealing the power of the silver screen to bring us closer together,” Obama said. On Friday, tributes to Poitier started flooding in on social media after the news of his death was released.
“If you wanted the sky i would write across the sky in letters that would soar a thousand feet high.. To Sir… with Love Sir Sidney Poitier R.I.P. He showed us how to reach for the stars,” award winning actor and TV host Whoopi Goldberg tweeted. In her own tweet, Oscar winner Viola Davis added “No words can describe how your work radically shifted my life. The dignity, normalcy, strength, excellence and sheer electricity you brought to your roles showed us that we, as Black folks, mattered!!!”
