laughed him out of his audition. There, Poitier learned alongside acting legends like Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis, and Harry Belafonte. Poitier decided he would not play someone who was immoral or cruel. “If you go through my career, you’ll find that I didn’t. I didn’t ever,” said Poitier. His typical character was dignified, proud and ethical. That lead to his first starring role in 1950 alongside Richard Widmark in a movie called “No Way Out”. This led to some unbelievable iconic film roles like (not his complete filmography): From the 50’s: • Cry, the Beloved Country • Blackboard Jungle • The Defiant Ones • Porgy and Bess From the 60’s: • A Raisin in the Sun • Lilies of the Field (He won the Academy Award) • The Greatest Story Ever Told • A Patch of Blue • To Sir, with Love • In the Heat of the Night (Won the Academy Award for Best Picture) • Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner From the 70’s: • Brother John • Buck and the Preacher • Uptown Saturday Night • Let’s Do It Again • A Piece of the Action After a decade long break from acting. From the 80’s: • Shoot to Kill • Little Nikita From the 90’s • Separate But Equal • Sneakers • Mandela and de Klerk • The Jackal Poitier also was the director of several films, starting with Buck and the Preacher in 1972, and including, Uptown Saturday Night, A Piece of the Action, Let’s Do It Again, Stir Crazy (starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder), Fast Forward, and Ghost Dad (starring Bill Cosby). He also wrote the movie For the Love of Ivy in 1968. Throughout his amazing career here are some of his Awards and Honors. Poitier became the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1963). He also received a Grammy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award. He received numerous honoraria during his lifetime including the Academy Honorary Award for his lifetime achievement in film in 2001. In 1992, Poitier received the AFI Life Achievement Award. In 1994, Poitier received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1981, he received the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award and in 2016 he received the BAFTA Fellowship. In 1995, Poitier received the Kennedy Center Honor and in 2009, Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama. In 2000, he was the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award winner then added in 2001, the NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame. He was also named an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 1974. In 1986, he gave the Commencement Address to the University 23
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