To Sidney Poitier, With Love: Chasing Greatness

“Sidney Poitier does not make movies, he makes milestones”
  Barack Obama, Former American President

In 1927 in Bahamas, a black family was blessed with their seventh child, who was small that he fit right into their palms. He was not expected to live long, and an obviously-worried mother turned to a palmist. One look at the tiny hands, and the fortune teller told his mother to let go of her worries, since her son will not only live a long life, but will also “walk with kings" one day.

The prophecy turned out to be true, as the child was none other than Sidney Portier--the first ever Black actor to win an Oscar for his performance in the 1963 film ‘Lillies of The Field’—whose death on Thursday, was mourned by everyone, not only for playing bearing and highly-principled characters in films and later on in TV as well, but also, for creating a legacy that saw him inspire an entire community.

When Denzel Washington won an Oscar for his performance in Training Day’ in 2001, he thanked Poitier for inspiring him and others like him. "Forty years I've been chasing Sidney. ... I'll always be chasing you, Sidney. I'll always be following in your footsteps," Washington said in his acceptance speech.

Known as the only black actor in Hollywood during the fifties, Poitier was only 15-years-old, when he was given three dollars by his father and sent to Miami, to look for better opportunities. Miami didn’t agree with him, and Poitier soon shifted to New York, and within a few years, Poitier found himself in Hollywood. In 1950, he made his debut with the film ‘No Way Out’, playing a doctor who would go on to treat an incredibly-racist patient. The first performance set a path for Poitier in films where racism was a very strong theme. In 1958, he became the first ever Black actor to be nominated for an Oscar for his performance in ‘The Defiant Ones’, playing the role of an escaped prisoner.

But it was 1967, when Poitier finally became a Hollywood star, in its truest form. ‘To Sir With Love saw him play a young and a slightly-idealistic teacher to a bunch of rebellious British teenagers in East England. According to the legend, Poitier struck a deal with the makers, that would go and become a pretty standard thing to do for a star in Hollywood, in future. Poitier who reportedly demanded one million dollars per movie at that time, agreed with the makers to get the minimum legal amount for an actor in exchange for a certain percentage with the film’s profits on the box office. The film is arguably one of the biggest hits in Poitier’s career and many joke that the makers are still paying Poitier his share of profits as the film, now a Hollywood classic, streams on different platforms.

If ‘To Sir With Love’ gave Poitier richly-deserved global stardom, his next film, ‘In The Heat Of The Night’ made him a legend. Playing a homicide detective, Virgil Tibbs, who is forced to investigate a murder by a bigoted White Police Chief. “They call me Mr. Tibbs,” roars Poitier after one of the many demeaning racial slurs by the Police Chief. It has since then become one of the most iconic dialogues, and is now an oft-used pop culture reference. Another strong scene from one of the most “intense” roles he has played in his life was when Tibbs slaps back a racially charged shop owner. Rumour has it, that Poitier, before agreeing to do the movie, asked the makers to add his slap and even added a clause in his contract preventing makers from cutting the scene. "I knew that I would have been insulting every Black person in the world (if I hadn't)," he had said in an interview in 2013.

His third and the final film, ‘Guess Who's Coming to Dinner,’ is another movie promoting racial tolerance and was one of the best examples of how Poitier, despite all the negative criticism for the choice of his roles, understood the responsibility of being a black actor in America. The film, which revolves around a young black man trying to convince the white parents of his white girlfriend for marrying him, came just six months after the American Supreme Court made interracial marriages legal in every state in the country.

It also the first time, when Poitier, also realised the pitfalls of being a big Hollywood star. At the height of his stardom, he was criticised heavily for playing characters where he helped “the white man in solving his white problems”, which saw Poitier retire from acting briefly. “I lived through people turning on me. It was painful for a couple years. I was the most successful Black actor in the history of the country. The criticism I received was principally because I was usually the only Black in the movies. Personally, I thought that was a step (forward)," Poitier told Oprah Winfrey in an interview in 2001.

It was the 70s when Poitier decided to tell more stories, rather than just being a part of them, and turned to directing. He made his debut as a director with the film ‘Buck and the Preacher’, then later went on to make comic trilogy (of sorts) with ‘Uptown Saturday Night,’ ‘Let's Do It Again’ and ‘A Piece of the Action’, which featured largely Black casts. But his first success as a director was the Gene Wilder-Richard Pryor comedy ‘Stir Crazy’ that remains one of his biggest hits as a director. He also turned to TV where he was nominated for the legendary American judge, Thurgood Marshall and the former South African president, the late Nelson Mandela, in two miniseries.

It wasn't until 2000, when Poitier retired from acting moved back to Bahamas, that Hollywood started acknowledging hiss impact and honouring his legacy. In 2000, he was awarded the honorary Academy Award for his contribution to cinema, in 2009 former American President Barack Obama awarded him America’s highest civilian order, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and in 2011 the Film Society of Lincoln Center awarded Poitier in 2011, where Quentin Tarantino remarked that Poitier’s influence changed cinema “forever”.

"There's a time before their arrival, and there's a time after their arrival. And after their arrival, nothing's ever going to be the same again. As far as the movies are concerned, there was pre-Poitier, and there was Hollywood post-Poitier," he had said. While people from his community mourn the loss of an icon, for the rest of the world, Sidney Poitier will always be someone, who influenced generations and convinced them that empathy and kindness are the two key factors while chasing greatness.