It was a first for Poitier, and also for any Black actor in a leading role. In 1958, his role in “ The Defiant Ones,” a film that broke racial barriers, earned him an Academy Award nomination for best actor. “ Cry, the Beloved Country” (1952), which examined the scourge of apartheid in South Africa and “ Blackboard Jungle” (1955), a social drama based on an interracial inner-city school, were just some of Poitier’s acting achievements during this time. He chose roles that would advance the depiction of Black actors and characters on screen.Īfter his first foray into film, Poitier continued to star in features that subverted typical expectations of Black characters and actors of the time and dealt with race head on.
Formed to advance self government, wider political representation and call for more government social programs, the party eventually formed a majority party in 1967, leading to the country achieving full independence from English colonial rule in 1973. Off the back of their success, a movement arose, and then the country’s first political party, the Progressive Liberal Party (PLP), was born. “After that, they decided to stay together.”
“They aroused citizens all over this land and demanded that the film be shown,” recalled former Governor-General of the Bahamas Sir Orville A. Outraged Bahamians of African descent soon gathered together to form the Citizens Committee to demand the ban on the movie be lifted. The film’s release also coincided with the nascent civil rights movement in the U.S., and was subject to strict censorship rules and bans, particularly in Southern cinemas, but also in the Bahamas, where the country’s colonial film board refused to show the film.
The effort paid off, and seven years later in 1950, when the budding actor was 22, he starred in his first film, “ No Way Out.” The pioneering noir picture was one of the first films to tackle the topic of racial tensions in America, and broke with typical portrayals of Black characters as subservient and cowering. Poitier listened endlessly to radio programs to help him learn to enunciate and lose his Bahamian lilt while working as a dishwasher. From there, he moved to New York City at the age of 15 with just three dollars in his pocket and decided he wanted to act in the movies. The youngest and most rambunctious of seven children, Poitier was on the verge of attending reform school when his father sent him to live with family in Miami, Fla., instead. His first film prompted the formation of a political party that later overthrew a government.īefore he found his way to Hollywood, Sidney Poitier spent his childhood on the remote beaches of Cat Island in the Bahamas, where he grew up the son of poor tomato farmers.
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