Sidney Poitier, the Academy Award-winning Black actor who experienced in life many of the racial stresses explored in his films, has died. He was 94.
NBC News reported his death, citing a source close to the family.
LOS ANGELES It was the most unlikely of beginnings. Newly arrived from the Bahamas with a thick West Indian accent, Sidney Poitier fumbled his lines so badly when he tried out for the American Negro Theater in Harlem that he was advised he’d be better off getting a job as a dishwasher.
Humiliated
Sidney Poitier, who helped break down Hollywood’s on-screen color barriers and made history as the first African American to win an Academy Award for best actor before becoming one of the top box-office draws of the 1960s in movies such as “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” has died WHERE.