Sidney Poitier, who broke through racial barriers as the first Black winner of the best actor Oscar for his role in "Lilies of the Field," and inspired a generation during the civil rights movement, has died at age 94, an official from the Bahamian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday. Eugene Torchon-Newry, acting director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, confirmed Poitier's death. Poitier created a distinguished film legacy in a single year with three 1967 films at a time when segregation prevailed in much of the United States.
There are few Hollywood actors who've enjoyed the cachet of Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor and the star of such classics as Guess.