Sir Sidney Poitier, is a Bahamian actor, film director, author and diplomat. In 1964, Poitier became the first Bahamian man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor, for his role in Lilies of the Field. The significance of this achievement was bolstered in 1967 when he starred in three successful films, all of which dealt with issues involving race: 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 1999, the American Film Institute named Poitier among the Greatest Male Stars of All Time, ranking 22nd on the list of 25.
Sidney Poitier has directed a number of films, including A Piece of the Action, Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again (with friend Bill Cosby), Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder) and Ghost Dad (also with Cosby). 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, in recognition of his “remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.” From 1997 to 2007, he served as 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.
Sidney Poitier was the first male actor of African descent to be nominated for a competitive Academy Award (for The Defiant Ones, 1958). He was also the first actor of African descent to win the Academy Award for Best Actor (for Lilies of the Field in 1963)