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Sidney Poitier

Bahamian and American actor and diplomat (1927–2022)

  • Fame71.4
  • Momentum5.6
  • Wikipedia117.4K
Source-basedRising
Lived 1927–2022, aged 95United States
United States flagUnited StatesBS flagActorsActor
  • Wikipedia
    93 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Era
    1927–2022
    Aged 95
  • Known for
    Sneakers
    1992
Summary
Updated 2026-08-26

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.

Biography

About

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…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier
said
The older we get the less afraid we are.
— As quoted in interview with AARP The Magazine (September/October 2008)
Sidney Poitier
said
The great disease of mankind is ignorance. With knowledge you can grasp tight a belief: that you can be better, that the world can be better. With that, you can claim hope.
— twenty-third letter — The World I Leave You, p. 273
Sidney Poitier
said
I would like to grow less afraid of dying. I am infinitely less afraid today than I was 15 or 25 years ago.
— "Oprah Talks to Sidney Poitier", O Magazine (October 2000)
Sidney Poitier
said
If you are anxious about death, then you don't have a sense of the oneness of things—you feel that after death, you will be no more.
— "Oprah Talks to Sidney Poitier", O Magazine (October 2000)
Sidney Poitier
said
When you’re addressing power, don’t expect it to crumble willingly.
— The Measure of a Man : A Spiritual Autobiography
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Deep cuts

Filmography

Low confidence
Deep cuts

TV credits

Low confidence
Deep cuts

Awards

Low confidence
  • BAFTA Fellowship
  • Spingarn Medal
  • Presidential Medal of Freedom
Where to find them

Platforms

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Rising
71.4
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum5.6
Historical28.2
Now attention17.9
Source confidence65.0
Completeness75.0
Global rank
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Country rank
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Category rank
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Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence