Sidney Poitier

SIDNEY POITIER d2022. Bahamian-American actor, film director, author and diplomat. In 1964, he became the first Bahamian and first African-American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of The Field. The significance of these achievements was bolstered in 1967, when he starred in three successful films, all of which dealt with issues involving race relations ; "To Sir With Love" / "In The Heat of The Night" and "Guess Whose Coming To Dinner" making him the top box-office star of that year. In 1999, the AFI named him among the Greatest Male Stars of classic Hollywood cinema (ranking 22nd on the list of 25). He has also directed a number of films including ; A Piece of The Action / Uptown Saturday Night / Lets Do It Again / Stir Crazy and Ghost Dad. In 2002, thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor Award, he was chosen to receive an Academy Honorary Award in recognition of his "remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being". From 1997-2007, he served as the non-resident Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12th 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the United States highest civilian honour) by President Barack Obama. In 2016 aged 89 he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding lifetime achievement in film. He died in California aged 94 on January 6th 2022