HUSL Today Salutes

Sidney Poitier 

 

 Sidney Poitier was born February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. In 1958, The Defiant Ones earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won an Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963). The win marked the first Oscar awarded to a black actor and made Poitier cinema's first African American superstar, one who consciously defied racial stereotyping. 

Check out footage of  Poitier's Oscar winning performance:

He brought dignity to the portrayal of noble and intelligent characters, including Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs in In the Heat of the NightThe Defiant Ones and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). 

Check out his acceptance speech below:

During the 1970s he began to direct, producing a number of lowbrow comedies such as the successful Richard Pryor-Gene Wilder vehicle Stir Crazy (1980) and Ghost Dad (1990). He returned to acting after a 10-year absence, appearing in Shoot to Kill (1988), Little Nikita (1988), Sneakers One Man, One Vote (1997). In 2001, he received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for his autobiographical book The Measure of a Man.  In 2002, he received an honorary Oscar.

HUSL Today Salutes Sidney Poitier!!! 

Sidenote: This is HUSL Today's 200th post.