LOS ANGELES | Sidney Poitier, legendary actor and first black Hollywood star, died at the age of 94, triggering unanimous tributes from stars, especially African-Americans, in the entertainment industry on Friday.
“We have lost an icon, a hero, a mentor, a fighter, and a national treasure,” Deputy Prime Minister Chester Cooper wrote on his Facebook page regarding the actor from Chain or even In the heat of the Night, without mentioning the cause of his death.
“Mr. Sidney Poitier, rest in peace. He showed us the way to the stars, ”black American star Whoopi Goldberg immediately tweeted.
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Multi-award winning actress and producer Viola Davis also paid tribute to the actor.
“The dignity, normalcy, strength, excellence and sheer energy that you bring to your roles have shown us black people that we matter !!” the Oscar winner said on her Instagram account .
Born prematurely in Miami, Florida, on February 20, 1927, when his parents moved from the neighboring Bahamas, Sidney Poitier thus obtained dual American and Bahamian nationality.
In 1964, he was the first African American to win the Oscar for Best Actor for The lily of the fields.
“The journey was long to get there,” he said very moved, receiving the golden statuette.
Through his roles, the audience was able to conceive that African Americans might be doctors (The door opens – 1950), engineers, professors (Angels with clenched fists – 1967), or police officers (In the heat of the Night – 1967).
But at 37, when the incandescent actor receives his Oscar, he’s the only color star in Hollywood.
“The film industry was not yet ready to raise more than one personality from minorities to the rank of star”, he deciphered in his autobiography This Life.
“At the time, (…) I endorsed the hopes of a whole people. I had no control over the content of the films (…), but I might refuse a role, which I did many times ”.
In Guess who’s coming to dinner? in 1967, he plays the fiance of a young white bourgeois presenting him to his parents, a couple of intellectuals who believe themselves to be open-minded. The meeting is a shock, and gives a major film on the racism of the time.
Black cause activists, however, harshly criticize Sidney Poitier for having accepted this role of internationally renowned doctor, at odds with the discrimination suffered by his peers. He is referred to as the “Negro on duty”, “white fantasy”. His unreal qualities as an ideal son-in-law mask his negritude and racist problems, they say.
In 2002 Sidney Poitier received an honorary Oscar for “his extraordinary performances, his dignity, his style and his intelligence”.
For African-American actor Jeffrey Wright, he was “a handsome man, graceful, warm and majestic.” Rest in peace, sir. We love you”.
