Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier was born and raised on Cat Island in the Bahamas. He received 2 years of formal education and ended up teaching himself. He came to Miami when he was 16 years old and through several years of living in poverty, even in a bus terminal bathroom, he got his first movie role at the age of 22 in No Way Out in 1950. He went on to become the first black man to win an Academy Award in 1963 for Lilies of the Field.

I just watched an Oprah Oscar Special tonight where George Clooney and Julia Roberts interviewed each other, followed by Russell Crowe and Nicole Kidman, and ending with Sidney Poitier and Jamie Fox. I must say, Sidney Poitier is an incredible person and an inspiring man. I fortunately never had to live in a time of segregation and am thankful for that, but the courage and integrity of people like Sidney Poitier is inspiring to anyone trying to overcome a stereotype or a title put on them by others.



"You listen to me. You say you don't want to tell me how to live my life. So what do you think you've been doing? You tell me what rights I've got or haven't got, and what I owe to you for what you've done for me. Let me tell you something. I owe you nothing! If you carried that bag a million miles, you did what you're supposed to do! Because you brought me into this world. And from that day you owed me everything you could ever do for me like I will owe my son if I ever have another. But you don't own me! You can't tell me when or where I'm out of line, or try to get me to live my life according to your rules. You don't even know what I am, Dad, you don't know who I am. You don't know how I feel, what I think. And if I tried to explain it the rest of your life you will never understand. You are 30 years older than I am. You and your whole lousy generation believes the way it was for you is the way it's got to be. And not until your whole generation has lain down and died will the dead weight be off our backs! You understand, you've got to get off my back! Dad... Dad, you're my father. I'm your son. I love you. I always have and I always will. But you think of yourself as a colored man. I think of myself as a man."

-Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)