Sidney Poitier, who has died at the age of 94, became Hollywood’s first Black superstar after a series of ground-breaking performances in classic films in the 1950s to 1970s.

[naviga:h2]- ‘The Defiant Ones’ (1958) – [/naviga:h2]

Two fugitives, one white (Tony Curtis) and the other Black (Poitier) are handcuffed together after escaping when their police van crashes in the American South when racial segregation was still the norm. 

The two men hate each other but quickly realise they had better find a way to get on. Their forced civility blossoms into friendship when they find common cause having both been lowly employees before jail, forced to suffer many humiliations at the hands of their employers.

His bravura performance won Poitier his first Oscar nomination.  

[naviga:h2]- ‘Lilies of the Field’ (1963) -[/naviga:h2]

Poitier plays an adventurer who meets a group of German Catholic nuns in the Arizona desert looking to build a church for local Hispanics. Inspired by their endeavour he joins in and at the same time teaches them English.

Ralph Nelson’s upbeat comedy with its values of solidarity between different communities was in stark contrast with the xenophobic white America of the time.

“I’d rather make pictures where people can leave the theatre feeling it’s nice to be alive,” said Poitier, who won a best actor Oscar for the role. 

[naviga:h2]- ‘In the Heat of the Night’ (1967) -[/naviga:h2]

Norman Jewison’s thriller won four Academy Awards including best film for its chilling depiction of the South, with Poitier as a model of integrity amid the racist incompetence of Mississippi whites.

After a businessman is killed in a small town, a Black man is arrested. Poitier plays a visiting top detective from Philadelphia who has to help with the investigation.

[naviga:h2]- ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?’ (1967) -[/naviga:h2]

Interracial marriage was still illegal in 17 US states when this comedy about a rich young woman bringing her fiance home to meet her parents was made.

The pair — liberal intellectuals who think themselves open-minded — get the shock of their lives when they see Poitier. 

Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy’s turn as the parents helped make it a hit, but Black activists slammed Poitier because they claimed the movie sidestepped the real problems. 

By playing a world famous doctor he gave into a “white fantasy” of the Black man should be, they said.

The film came out the same year as race riots broke out in the US and the Supreme Court finally ruled that interracial marriages were legal.

[naviga:h2]- ‘Uptown Saturday Night’ (1974) -[/naviga:h2]

The first Black comedy to be a box office hit in the US follows two friends — Poitier and Bill Cosby — struggling to find a winning lottery ticket in a wallet that was stolen in a hold-up.

Poitier directed as well as played one of the hilarious leads in a film that had black actors running the show rather than being the butt of jokes.

He followed up his directorial success with “Let’s Do It Again” the following year and “A Piece of the Action” in 1977, which is due to be remade by Will Smith starring Denzel Washington in 2022.

-AFP