Sidney Poitier Bio, Age, Wife, Daughter, Net Worth, Movies & Wiki

Sidney Poitier is an actor, director, and diplomat well known for being the first black person to have been rewarded the Academy Award for Best Actor. He earned this award for his representation of Homer Smith, an African American employee in the film, Lilies of the Field. This was a very symbolic achievement in the 1960s when discrimination was wanton in the United States. Born to underprivileged Bahamian farmer parents, he got little formal education. As a teenager, he was turning towards roadway crime when his father sent him to the United States to initiate life anew. He collected a huge cultural shock in New York where he watched boundless racism and rift between the classes.

After struggling to make finishes meet as a dishwasher, he followed the American Negro Theater. Through his determination and the hard struggle he soon became a much followed after-theatre artist and soon started receiving film offers. In his debut film No Way Out, he performed as a doctor who manages a white bigot. This appearance got him noticed and he earned certain offers. After establishing himself as a successful actor, he branched into the direction as well. He was called as one of the Greatest Male Stars of All Time by the American Film Institute in 1999.

Sidney Poitier Wiki/Bio

Birth Name	Sir Sidney Poitier KBE
Nick Name	Sidney Poitier
Age	(as in 2022) 95 years
Religion	Christian
Sun Sign/Zodiac Sign	Pisces
Birth Place	Міаmі, Flоrіdа, Unіtеd Ѕtаtеѕ
Date of Birth	20 February 1927
Date of Death	6 January 2022 (at Beverly Hills, California, United States)
Nationality	Аmеrісаn
Residence	Beverly Hills, CA
Home Town	Міаmі
Hobbies	Not Available
Family
Mother’s Name	Evelyn Poitier
Father’s Name	Reginald James Poitier
Brother	Cyril Poitier (older)
Sister	Not Available
Girlfriends/Affairs
Affairs/Girlfriends	Not Available
Marital Status, Wife and Children
Wife/Spouse	Joanna Shimkus (m. 1976) Juanita Hardy (m. 1950–1965)
Marriage Date	January 23, 1976 (with Joanna Shimkus) April 29, 1950 (with Juanita Hardy)
Children	Son- None Daughters- • Beverly Poitier-Henderson • Pamela Poitier • Sherri Poitier • Gina Poitier • Anika Poitier • Sydney Tamiia Poitier
Education
School	Actors Studios Inc
College/University	None
Educational Qualification	He had little formal education.
Profession	Actor, director, author, and diplomat
Brands Endorsed	Not Available
Career Manager	Not Available
Height, Weight, and Figure Measurements
Height (Approx.)	in centimeters- 189 cm in meters- 1.89 m in feet inches- 6’2”
Weight (Approx.)	in kilograms- 85 kg in pounds- 187 lbs
Figure Measurements
Chest Size	Not Available
Biceps Size	Not Available
Waist Size	Not Available
Extra Ordinary Features
Race / Ethnicity	Black
Hair Color	Salt and Pepper
Eye Color	Black
S*xual Orientation	Ѕtrаіght
Dress Size	Not Available
Shoe Size	Not Available
Favourite Things
Favourite Food	Not Available
Favourite Actors	Not Available
Favourite Colors	Not Available
Favourite Sport	Not Available
Controversies	None

Life Journey

A native of Cat Island, The Bahamas (although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents), Poitier raise up in poverty as the son of farmers Evelyn (nee Outten) and Reginald James Poitier, who also run a cab.

He had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to live with his brother, in order to forestall a growing tendency toward delinquency. In the U.S., he faces the racial chasm that divides the country, a great shock to a boy coming from a society with a mostly of African descent.

At 18, he went to New York, did tiny jobs, and slept in a bus terminal toilet. A brief stint in the Army as a worker at a veteran’s hospital was followed by more menial jobs in Harlem. A great audition at the American Negro Theatre was rejected so forcefully that Poitier dedicated the next six months to overcoming his accent and improving his performing skills. On his second attempt, he was accepted.

Focused in rehearsal by a casting agent, he won a bit part in the Broadway production of “Lysistrata”, for which he earned good reviews. By the end of 1949, he was having to choose between leading roles on stage and an offer to work for Darryl F. Zanuck in the film No Way Out (1950). His performance as a doctor treating a white bigot got him plenty of notice and led to more roles.

Orlando Bloom Bio, Age, Wife, Son, Net Worth, Movies, TV Shows & Wiki

Nevertheless, the characters were still less interesting and prominent than those white actors timely obtained. But seven years later, after turning down several projects he considered demeaning, Poitier got a number of roles that catapulted him into a category rarely if ever achieved by an African American man of that time, that of a leading man.

One of these films, The Defiant Ones (1958), earned Poitier his first Academy Award nomination as Best Actor. Five years later, he won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field (1963), the first African American to win for a leading role.

Sidney Poitier Net Worth

According to WoodGram, Sidney Poitier’s estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below. Let’s check, How Rich is Sidney Poitier at the time of death?

Sidney Poitier had a net worth of $20 million at the time of his death.

Noted, Currently, We don’t have enough information about Cars, Monthly/Yearly Salary, etc. We will update you soon.

Emily Blunt Bio, Age, Height, Husband, Kids, Net Worth, Movies & Wiki

Sidney Poitier Movies And TV Shows

• Poitier made his Hollywood debut in the 1950 feature film No Way Out, and he followed in 1951 with Cry, the Beloved Country, a drama set in South Africa during the time of apartheid.
• He loved a career breakthrough in 1955 with the popular Blackboard Jungle, portraying a troubled but gifted student at an inner-city school.
• Poitier’s success as an actor reached new heights when he scored an Academy Award nomination for the 1958 crime drama The Defiant Ones, with Tony Curtis.
• The following year, he lit up the screen as a leading man in the musical Porgy and Bess, co-starring with Dorothy Dandridge. Both this film and his impressive turn in the 1961 film adaptation of A Raisin in the Sun helped make the actor a top star.
• In 1964, Poitier claimed the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance in Lilies of the Field (1963)—the first win by an African-American actor in this category.
• In 1967, Poitier delivered three very different yet equally strong performances. He played Philadelphia detective Virgil Tibbs in the Southern crime drama In the Heat of the Night. In Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, he played a black man engaged to a white woman in this groundbreaking look at interracial marriage.
• While he helped break down the color barrier in film and brought dignity to the portrayal of noble and intelligent characters, Poitier found himself under fire for not being more politically radical in the late 1960s.
• He was especially upset by a harsh article about him in The New York Times and decided to step out of the spotlight, choosing to live in the Bahamas for a time before making his return to Hollywood.
• In 1972 Poitier made his directorial debut and co-starred with his friend Harry Belafonte in the Western Buck and the Preacher. The pair also appeared together in the 1974 comedy Uptown Saturday Night, the first of several Poitier-directed efforts that featured Bill Cosby.
• In 1980, Poitier helmed the Richard Pryor–Gene Wilder comedy Stir Crazy, which became the highest-grossing film by an African-American director for many years.
• After a roughly 10-year absence from the big screen as an actor, in 1988 Poitier returned with a pair of dramas—Shoot to Kill and Little Nikita. Other notable later films include Sneakers (1992) and One Man, One Vote (1997).
• On the small screen, Poitier earned accolades for portraying some of history’s famous men. He played U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in Separate but Equal in 1991 and opposite Michael Caine as South African leader Nelson Mandela in Mandela and De Klerk in 1997.

Books and Honors

Turning his attention to sharing his many personal experiences, Poitier in 2000 published The Measure of a Man, which was billed as a spiritual autobiography. That same year he picked up a Grammy Award for best-spoken word album for the audio version of the book. He later shared his years of wisdom for future generations with 2008’s Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter.

Poitier has received numerous honors during his legendary career. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the British Empire in 1974, which entitles him to use the title “sir,” though he chooses not to do so.

In 2009 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama. Two years later he was feted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, earning the organization’s Chaplin Lifetime Achievement Award.

Poitier has also served as non-resident Bahamian ambassador to Japan and to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization.

Facts

1. Nominated for two Academy Awards and won one. Also received an honorary Oscar.
2. Nominated for two Grammy Awards and won one.
3. Nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards.
4. Grew up on Cat Island in the Bahamas. The family later moved to Nassau. His parents sent him to live with relatives in Miami at age 14. After an encounter with the Ku Klux Klan, he left Miami at age 16 and moved to New York.
5. Lying about his age, he joined the Army at age 16. He feigned insanity to obtain a discharge after nine months, and later admitted the ruse in his book, “The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography.”
6. A heavy Bahamian accent and limited reading ability cost him an acting job at Harlem’s American Negro Theater. He overcame the accent by imitating radio announcers and improved his reading skills by studying newspapers.
7. Has dual citizenship in the United States and the Bahamas.

FAQs