What does Sidney Poitier mean?

Definitions for Sidney Poitier
sid·ney poiti·er

This dictionary definitions page includes all the possible meanings, example usage and translations of the word Sidney Poitier.

Princeton's WordNet

  1. Poitier, Sidney Poitiernoun

    United States film actor and director (born in 1927)

Wikipedia

  1. Sidney Poitier

    Sidney Poitier ( PWAH-tyay; February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian and American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. He received two competitive Golden Globe Awards, a competitive British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (BAFTA), and a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album. Poitier was one of the last major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema. Poitier's family lived in the Bahamas, then still a Crown colony, but he was born unexpectedly in Miami, Florida, while they were visiting, which automatically granted him U.S. citizenship. He grew up in the Bahamas, but moved to Miami at age 15, and to New York City when he was 16. He joined the American Negro Theatre, landing his breakthrough film role as a high school student in the film Blackboard Jungle (1955). In 1958, Poitier starred with Tony Curtis as chained-together escaped convicts in The Defiant Ones, which received nine Academy Award nominations; both actors received nominations for Best Actor, with Poitier's being the first for a Black actor. They both also had Best Actor nominations for the BAFTAs, with Poitier winning. Additionally Poitier won the Silver Bear for Best Actor for his performance in the film. In 1964, he won the Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1963), playing an itinerant handyman helping a group of German-speaking nuns build a chapel.Poitier also received acclaim for Porgy and Bess (1959), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), and A Patch of Blue (1965), because of his strong roles as epic African American male characters. He continued to break ground in three successful 1967 films which dealt with issues of race and race relations: To Sir, with Love; Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of the Night, the latter of which won the Academy Award for Best Picture for that year. He received Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for his performance in the last film, and in a poll the next year he was voted the US's top box-office star. Beginning in the 1970s, Poitier also directed various comedy films, including Stir Crazy (1980), starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder, among other films. After nearly a decade away from acting, he returned to television and film starring in Shoot to Kill (1988) and Sneakers (1992). Poitier was granted a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. In 1982, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award. In 1995, he received the Kennedy Center Honor. From 1997 to 2007, he was the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan. In 1999, he ranked 22nd among male actors on the "100 Years...100 Stars" list by the American Film Institute and received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2002, he was given an Honorary Academy Award, in recognition of his "remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being". In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States, by President Barack Obama. In 2016, he was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding lifetime achievement in film.

ChatGPT

  1. sidney poitier

    Sidney Poitier is an American actor, film director, and diplomat who became the first African American to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in 1964, for his role in "Lilies of the Field." He was born on February 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. Poitier's illustrious career spans over six decades, with notable films such as "Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner," "To Sir, with Love," and "In the Heat of the Night." He also served as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan and UNESCO. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian honor in the United States.

Wikidata

  1. Sidney Poitier

    Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is an American-born Bahamian actor, film director, author, and diplomat. In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was later bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films: To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, making him the top box-office star of that year. In all three films, issues revolve around the race of the characters Poitier portrays. In 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25. Poitier has directed a number of popular movies, such as A Piece of the Action, Uptown Saturday Night, Let's Do It Again and Stir Crazy. In 2002, thirty-eight years after receiving the Best Actor Award, Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being." Since 1997, he has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan. On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.

Suggested Resources

  1. sidney poitier

    Quotes by sidney poitier -- Explore a large variety of famous quotes made by sidney poitier on the Quotes.net website.

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Numerology

  1. Chaldean Numerology

    The numerical value of Sidney Poitier in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

  2. Pythagorean Numerology

    The numerical value of Sidney Poitier in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of Sidney Poitier in a Sentence

  1. Dan Gainor:

    Media Research Center's easy to forget now, but Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier were among the first black actors who gained widespread acceptance, to many, he's still Alexander Scott from ‘ I Spy ’, Dr. Cliff Huxtable or the voice of Fat Albert. These charges will follow him to the grave, but that doesn't mean people won't watch him.

  2. Danny Glover:

    All of us who have walked in the shadow of Sidney Poitier owe him so much, for over 80 years, Sidney and I laughed, cried and made as much mischief as we could. He was truly my brother and partner in trying to make this world a little better.He certainly made mine a whole lot better.

  3. Dan Gainor:

    Bringing ‘ The Cosby Show ’ to Bounce might do well in the ratings, at least for a little while, but is The Cosby Show ' worth the loss of sponsors who ’ll flee the network because Bill Cosby don’t want Bill Cosby brand to be associated with a company that profits from the ‘ humor ’ of a serial rapist ? media Research Center's easy to forget now, but Bill Cosby and Sidney Poitier were among the first black actors who gained widespread acceptance.

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