People
Sidney Poitier
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Sidney Poitier KBE (February 20, 1927 – January 6, 2022) was a Bahamian and American actor, film director, and diplomat. In 1964, he became the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field. Other accolades include 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. Major films featuring Poitier in a starring role include Blackboard Jungle (1955), The Defiant Ones (1958), To Sir, with Love (1967), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), Sneakers (1992), and The Jackal (1997). Later in his career, he turned to directing with features such as Buck and the Preacher (1972), Uptown Saturday Night (1974), Stir Crazy (1980), and Ghost Dad (1990). At the time of his death, Poitier was one of the last major stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood cinema.
Notable films
Where to start
Highlights from credits and KinoChain journeys.
To Sir, with Love
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Defiant Ones
Appears in a KinoChain journey
The Jackal
As Carter Preston
Sneakers
As Crease
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
As John Prentice
In the Heat of the Night
As Virgil Tibbs
The Greatest Story Ever Told
As Simon of Cyrene
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
As Self - Audience Member
Chains
KinoChain journeys
Public chains that pass through their films — or name them as a bridge.
The Writer's Fight
From Spartacus to the shadows of the blacklist, a chain of films that honours the courage of Hollywood's silenced screenwriters.
8 films
The Classroom Without Walls
From a London schoolroom to a Parisian banlieue, a journey through films where teaching becomes an act of defiance and connection.
8 films
Topics
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Related people
Collaborators & neighbours
Directed
Acted
Paul Newman: The Restless
2023 · Self
The Jackal
1997 · Carter Preston
Sneakers
1992 · Crease
Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night
1988 · Self - Audience Member
Let's Do It Again
1975 · Clyde Williams
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967 · John Prentice
In the Heat of the Night
1967 · Virgil Tibbs
To Sir, with Love
1967 · Mark Thackeray
The Greatest Story Ever Told
1965 · Simon of Cyrene
The Defiant Ones
1958 · Noah Cullen