Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier (1927-2022) was a Bahamian-American actor, director, author, and diplomat, born in Miami, Florida, to Bahamian parents and raised in the Bahamas. He broke racial barriers in Hollywood, becoming the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1963), and starred in landmark films including The Defiant Ones (1958), To Sir, with Love (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967). As an author, he wrote bestselling autobiographical works such as This Life, The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography, and Life Beyond Measure: Letters to My Great-Granddaughter.