poitier
Sidney Poitier in ‘A Raisin in the Sun’, New York, 1959. GORDON PARKS.

Sidney Poitier, the First Black Man to Win an Oscar Award, Has Died

Poitier is considered to be the first Black actor to achieve mainstream fame in 1950s-60s America, when American studios offered very few starring roles to African Americans.

Sidney Poitier, who in 1964 and for the movie, Lilies of the Field, became the first Black actor to win an Oscar award died on the evening of Thursday, 06 January 2022. His death was confirmed in a statement to Forbes by Clint Watson, press secretary for the Prime Minister of the Bahamas. According to Watson, Poitier died of ‘natural causes’ and had been ‘ailing for a while’.

Notable figures in the...

 

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