The Tribune

SIR Sidney Poitier was born in Miami to a tomato farmer from Cat Island, where he grew up.

As a teenager, he went to New York, enlisted in the army at age 16 – by claiming he was 18 – then took a number of menial jobs including dishwasher and watchman.

After being denied a job with the American Negro Theatre, he paid for acting lessons there by working as a janitor, eventually landing an understudy role to Harry Belafonte.

More roles followed and he landed a role in 1950s No Way Out, which was the launching pad for his film career.

He is known globally for his consistently sensitive and powerful portrayals in such socially charged films as No Way Out, Blackboard Jungle, To Sir With Love, The Defiant Ones, Pressure Points, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night.

He initiated the role of Walter Lee Younger in A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway and in 1958 won an academy award for his best actor performance in Lillies of the Field.

He was the first black actor to win an Oscar.

In 1999, the American Film Institute named Sir Sidney among the greatest male stars of all time, ranking him 22 on the list of 25.

Sir Sidney was knighted in 1975 and has served the country as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan since 1997.

On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America’s highest civilian honour, by President Barack Obama.