# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/sidney-poitier
# Generated: 2026-08-31T14:40:35.244Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/sidney-poitier"
name: "Sidney Poitier"
slug: "sidney-poitier"
description: "He cracked Hollywood's color line at the absolute height of its power, stepping through doors that hadn't existed and then holding them open. The first Black actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor, in 1964, when that fact alone rewired what American cinema thought possible."
tagline: "Bahamian and American actor and diplomat (1927–2022)"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Sidney_Poitier_1968.jpg?width=1200"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Actors"
  slug: "actors"
profileType:
  name: "Actor"
  slug: "actor"
  entityType: "https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q33999"
birthDate: "1927-02-20"
deathDate: "2022-01-06"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           71.41
  momentum:             5.618252638337498
  historical:           28.224672
  currentAttention:     17.92344444991071
  sourceConfidence:     65
  profileCompleteness:  75
  trendDirection:       "RISING"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: null
tags:
  - name: "Actors"
    slug: "actors"
  - name: "Actor"
    slug: "actor"
  - name: "Movies"
    slug: "movies"
  - name: "Television"
    slug: "television"
  - name: "Stand Up"
    slug: "stand-up"
  - name: "Film Directing"
    slug: "film-directing"
  - name: "Literature"
    slug: "literature"
  - name: "Theatre"
    slug: "theatre"
platforms:
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    url:       "https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001627/"
    handle:    "nm0001627"
sources:
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    title: "Wikipedia"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikidata"
    type:  "WIKIDATA"
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    title: "Pantheon 2.0"
    type:  "DATABASE"
  - url: "https://ar.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D8%B3%D9%8A%D8%AF%D9%86%D9%8A_%D8%A8%D9%88%D8%A7%D8%AA%D9%8A%D9%8A%D9%87"
    title: "سيدني بواتييه"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "سيدنى بواتييه"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Сыдні Пуат’е"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://be.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%96%D0%B4%D0%BD%D1%96_%D0%9F%D1%83%D0%B0%D1%86%D1%8C%D0%B5"
    title: "Сідні Пуацье"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Сидни Поатие"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier"
    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier"
    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Σίντνεϊ Πουατιέ"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier"
    title: "Sidney Poitier"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://pt.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sidney_Poitier"
    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
  - url: "https://musicbrainz.org/artist/d35b2f55-2f3d-47eb-b179-4248e0c96d74"
    title: "MusicBrainz"
    type:  "DATABASE"

# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in Miami during a family visit from the Bahamas in 1927, Poitier grew up in the islands before moving to New York at sixteen and joining the American Negro Theatre. His breakthrough came in 1955's Blackboard Jungle, followed by The Defiant Ones in 1958, which earned him the first Best Actor nomination for an African American. The Academy Award came in 1964 for Lilies of the Field, the same year he won the Golden Globe. By 1967 he starred in three films that made race their subject — To Sir, with Love, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, In the Heat of the Night — and the next year was voted the country's top box-office draw. He turned to directing in the seventies, helming Buck and the Preacher and Stir Crazy, and later served as Bahamian Ambassador to Japan from 1997 to 2007. He died in January 2022, one of the last from Hollywood's golden age.