Forty-five years ago, today, Sidney Poitier took the stage of the 36th Annual Academy Awards, held at Santa Monica auditorium to accept the Academy Award for Best Actor for his role as Homer Smith, the reluctant Baptist carpenter at the center of Lilies of the Field (MGM, 1963). Poitier’s first Oscar came twenty-five years after Hattie McDaniel took home the first Oscar awarded to an African-American actor for her portrayal of Mammy in the epic film, Gone With the Wind (MGM, 1939), and marked the first time that an Oscar in a competitive category had been awarded to an African-American man. Poitier had been nominated six years earlier for his performance in The Defiant Ones (United Artists, 1958) as had his co-star, Tony Curtis, but the Oscar had gone to David Niven for his role in Separate Tables (United Artists, 1958). “It has been a long journey to this moment," a visibly emotional Poitier said after receiving the statue.
Following the award, the Bahamian actor went on to build on his already impressive career, with legendary performances in Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967, Columbia Pictures), To Sir, with Love (1967, Columbia Pictures), and In the Heat of the Night (1967, United Artist). As his career progressed he turned his attention behind the lens, directing the classic Uptown Saturday Night (Warner Bros. Pictures, 1974) and scoring a massive hit with his 1980 comedy Stir Crazy (1980, Columbia TriStar), which grossed over $100 million. In 2002, Poitier was presented with an Honorary Oscar for his body of work at the 74th Annual Academy Awards, the same night that Halle Berry became the first African American to win for Best Actress (Monster’s Ball) and Denzel Washington became the second African American to take home the award for Best Actor (Training Day) since Poitier’s win in 1964. Washington marked the occasion with a quip: “Forty years I’ve been chasing Sidney, they finally give it to me. What do they do? They give it to him the same night.” Actually, Denzel, it was 38 years.
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