Winning the 1964 Academy Award for Best Actor was a complicated experience for the late Sidney Poitier, MJSchulman writes—and its symbolism became more curdled as the decades passed.
.” “I was being pushed to do the impossible.” The film was shot in fourteen days, on a shoestring budget, and it wears its politics lightly; the critic Bosley Crowther wrote that Poitier’s character “could be a white man just as well.” But, in 1963, on the heels of the, United Artists sensed an opportunity to sell the movie as a parable of tolerance.
Poitier viewed himself as “a dark horse, so to speak,” and considered not attending. Ultimately, he decided that “it would be good for black people to see themselves competing for the top honor,” he wrote, in “This Life.” As he sat in the audience, sweating and alone, he was seized with the fear of winning and saying something “dumb.
Poitier’s post-Oscar period was fruitful but frustrating. “I was now viewed as a fixture in the film world,” he wrote, “but my fellow black actors, almost to a man, were trapped in a drought of inactivity and unemployment that sapped and embittered whatever satisfaction they may have derived from the success of a single one of us.” As with McDaniel, the prize had ossified him, especially as times changed. In 1967, he starred in three films, whose combined box-office receipts made him the No.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Sidney Poitier: A Movie Star Who Burned Bright Enough to Change the WorldSidney Poitier’s two most iconic moments as an actor both occur in the 1967 Oscar-winning drama “In the Heat of the Night.” The first is his famous declaration “They call me Mister Tibbs!” The seco…
Read more »
UHPOG, Week 18: Nobody keeps up with Sidney JonesUnheralded Player of the Game, Week 18: Nobody keeps up with Sidney Jones
Read more »
Sidney Poitier's Daughter Writes Emotional Post Honoring Her FatherSidney Poitier's daughter posts a moving tribute.
Read more »
Opinion | The Message of Sidney Poitier’s SuccessFrom WSJopinion: Sidney Poitier is rightly being celebrated for his pioneering performances, but his legacy is larger than that. The nation owes him a debt of gratitude, writes jasonrileywsj
Read more »
Jonathan Majors’ Powerful Letter of Thanks to Sidney Poitier: “We’ve Got Your Back!”The star of 'The Harder They Fall' pays tribute to the late screen legend, whose searing film performances continue to inspire and embolden: 'What you have done for me as a Black actor, and for other marginalized artists, is monumental.'
Read more »
Cleveland Cinemas Announces Special Screenings to Honor Sidney Poitier, Peter BogdanovichCleveland Cinemas will commemorate the lives and works of two lately deceased Hollywood giants with special screenings at the Cedar Lee this month. Sidney Poitier,...
Read more »