Was sidney poitier gay

There was a confluence of Poitier and gayness with the Will Smith character in the hit film Six Degrees of Separation, which was based on a true story. Smith’s character, Paul, hoodwinked. Sidney Poitier and Diahann Carroll had a clandestine affair while they were both still married to other people. Carroll claimed that Poitier promised to leave his wife for her.

Sidney Poitier (/ ˈpwɑːtjeɪ / PWAH-tyay; [1] February 20, – January 6, ) was a Bahamian-American actor, film director, activist, and diplomat.

In , he was the first black actor and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor. [2]. As legendary performers, civil rights fighters, and artists who fought to break out of Hollywood’s stereotypical roles for Black men, Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte were destined to become. Sidney Poitier. Actor: Lilies of the Field. Sidney Poitier was a native of Cat Island, Bahamas, although born, two months prematurely, in Miami during a visit by his parents, Evelyn (Outten) and Reginald James Poitier.

He grew up in poverty as the son of farmers, with his father also driving a cab in Nassau. Sidney had little formal education and at the age of 15 was sent to Miami to. Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages. He was Poitier pushed against the typical roles of Black men in Hollywood.

His activism extended beyond the screen as well. Martin Luther King, Jr. In , Poitier went back to D. No less than Dr. Yet despite the inroads he made in his own industry in the age of Jim Crow, Poitier came to be castigated by some, unfairly or not, as someone who chose safe roles that made white people feel comfortable, rather than ones that more directly confronted racial prejudice.

New voices were speaking for African-Americans, and in new ways. Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, the Black Panthers. Suddenly, the upstairs window opened and there was Sidney. Can I get you a chair? In fact, there was something stirring in Poitier in those days. But only later, in his autobiography, would Poitier reveal the anger he fought to keep hidden during the early years of his career.

I have to try to find a way to channel that anger to the positive, and the highest positive is forgiveness. Poitier was born two and a half months premature, on Feb. The youngest of seven children, Poitier grew up poor.

lilies of the field

His father was a tomato farmer, and by the age of 13, Poitier was working a full-time job to help his family. Within two years, his family had decided to send him on a boat to the U. And I think now that they did. He gave me infinitely more than the three dollars he put in my hand. In Florida, Poitier was introduced to a type of racism that he had never before experienced, and that he had no plans to adhere to.

When he returned, he found work as a dishwasher. Then, one day, something happened. The American Negro Theatre wanted actors, and Poitier wanted to try out. For all the criticism he faced later in his career, it was not always easy for Poitier, even at his highest moments. Moreso than perhaps some realized, Poitier considered the social ramifications of the roles he played. In one scene, Poitier slaps a man in the face after being slapped himself.

A truth that could have for a longer time eluded us had it not been for him and the choices he made. For two decades, HuffPost has brought you the exclusives, scoops and hot takes on the news all your friends are talking about.