He knew that his Oscar win wouldn’t suddenly open doors for others and became a formidable force for a generation
The death of Sidney Poitier is a moment of great sadness for many, but especially for people like my parents, who remember him being the first Black actor they ever saw on TV. Raised in the Bahamas by tomato farmers, he was the youngest of seven children and came from extreme poverty. He moved to New York aged 16, where he worked as a dishwasher, took acting lessons and taught himself how to read, write and enunciate by reading newspapers and listening to the radio. He was the definition of a self-made man.
When he won an Academy Award for best actor in 1964, he was the first Black person to do so. He was proud of his victory but, admirably, wasn’t blinded by it. “I don’t believe my Oscar will be a sort of magic wand that will wipe away restrictions on job opportunities for negro actors,” he said in an interview. He wasn’t wrong. It would be 38 years before another Black person (Denzel Washington) would win a best actor Oscar.
