When Sidney Poitier died last week at the age of 94, he left behind generations of children. Poitier, who was the first Black actor to ever win an Oscar when he took home a Best Actor trophy in 1964 for his role in Lillies of the Field, perhaps more than any single star paved the way for Black stories and stars to exist on-screen. One of the countless beneficiaries includes Jonathan Majors, the actor who penned a letter to Poitier in The Hollywood Reporter as a means of tribute to the late stalwart of cinema.
Majors, the star of Lovecraft Country and, more recently, The Harder They Fall, recalls first encountering Poitier as a child, moved by his performance and character in To Sir, With Love, whose lesson about toughness registered to him as a young, self-proclaimed troublemaker. “The messenger made all the difference: a tall, charming, well-dressed, caring and strong Black man, an icon I had not yet seen on my TV set,” Majors writes.
