Oscar Winner Sidney Poitier Dies

FILE - Actor Sidney Poitier poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE - Actor Sidney Poitier poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
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Oscar Winner Sidney Poitier Dies

FILE - Actor Sidney Poitier poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)
FILE - Actor Sidney Poitier poses for a portrait in Beverly Hills, Calif. on June 2, 2008. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

Sidney Poitier, the groundbreaking actor and enduring inspiration who transformed how Black people were portrayed on screen, became the first Black actor to win an Academy Award for best lead performance and the first to be a top box-office draw, has died. He was 94.

Poitier, winner of the best actor Oscar in 1964 for “Lilies of the Field,” died Thursday in the Bahamas, according to Eugene Torchon-Newry, acting director general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Bahamas.

Few movie stars, Black or white, had such an influence both on and off the screen. Before Poitier, the son of Bahamian tomato farmers, no Black actor had a sustained career as a lead performer or could get a film produced based on his own star power.

Before Poitier, few Black actors were permitted a break from the stereotypes of bug-eyed servants and grinning entertainers. Before Poitier, Hollywood filmmakers rarely even attempted to tell a Black person’s story.

Poitier peaked in 1967 with three of the year’s most notable movies: “To Sir, With Love,” in which he starred as a school teacher who wins over his unruly students at a London secondary school; “In the Heat of the Night,” as the determined police detective Virgil Tibbs; and in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” as the prominent doctor who wishes to marry a young white woman he only recently met, her parents played by Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in their final film together.

Theater owners named Poitier the No. 1 star of 1967, the first time a Black actor topped the list.

The theme of cultural differences turned lighthearted in “Lilies of the Field,” in which Poitier played a Baptist handyman who builds a chapel for a group of Roman Catholic nuns, refugees from Germany. In one memorable scene, he gives them an English lesson.

The only Black actor before Poitier to win a competitive Oscar was Hattie McDaniel, the 1939 best supporting actress for “Gone With the Wind.” No one, including Poitier, thought “Lilies of the Field” his best film, but the times were right (Congress would soon pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964, for which Poitier had lobbied) and the actor was favored even against such competitors as Paul Newman for “Hud” and Albert Finney for “Tom Jones.” Newman was among those rooting for Poitier.



'Daddio' Eschews Glitz for Deep Conversation between Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. Reuters
Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. Reuters
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'Daddio' Eschews Glitz for Deep Conversation between Sean Penn, Dakota Johnson

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. Reuters
Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn. Reuters

Dakota Johnson knew two-time Academy Winner Sean Penn was exactly who she wanted to star in the film “Daddio” as the male lead, but at first, she was not sure how to make it happen.
"The first and only person that I was like, 'Oh he'd be really perfect', was Sean and we kind of thought he would never do it because it's such a small movie with a first-time filmmaker and newer producers,” she said.
However, living close to Penn and occasionally hanging out gave her the chance to ask him if he would read the script for “Daddio.”
“He did it quite quickly, and that was surprising, and then we went for a walk, and he loved it (the script),” Johnson added.
Johnson acquired the "Daddio" screenplay from writer and director Christy Hall, Reuters reported. In the film, she plays a young woman who takes a cab driven by a man named Clark, played by Penn, who calls her "Girlie." The character's real name is never stated in the film.
"Girlie" takes the yellow cab back to her apartment in Manhattan after landing at John F. Kennedy Airport. She and Clark, the cab driver, have a shockingly earnest conversation about a range of topics, including relationships, loss and vulnerability.
“Daddio” arrives in theaters on Friday.
The majority of the film involves Clark and 'Girlie' talking about their lives and experiences while in the cab.
Penn believes the film defies the "razzle dazzle" that people are often told they must look for in a film.
For him, a glitzy film is not necessarily the key to crafting impressive cinema.
Instead, what struck him about "Daddio" was the quality of the script and the rawness of Johnson’s performance as "Girlie."
“She has such a beautiful vulnerability ... that never gets in the way of strength,” he said.
“It’s vulnerability in the most relevant ways,” he added.