On Friday, Reginald Hudlin’s documentary “Sidney” debuts on Apple TV+, after its bow at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. The film depicts the life and groundbreaking career of the pioneering Bahamian American actor Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win an Academy Award. Produced by Oprah Winfrey and daughter Anika Poitier (among others), the film features the likes of Denzel Washington, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Spike Lee, Lenny Kravitz and more speaking about the incredible impact that the actor had on American film culture and on the American civil rights movement in the late 1960s, when Poitier was a major box office draw.
The portrait directed by Hudlin (“Marshall”) uses archival footage and interviews with the late Poitier as well as contemporary interviews to outline his life and career and his enduring legacy. After watching the documentary, one will no doubt want to catch some Poitier films, so here’s a selection of his career highlights available on streaming.
Poitier’s first credited role in a major film was in Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s noir “No Way Out” in 1950, opposite Richard Widmark and Linda Darnell, playing an African American doctor blamed by a man for his brother’s death (rent it on all platforms). His breakout role was in Richard Brooks’ rock 'n’ roll soundtracked “Blackboard Jungle” (1955), playing a rebellious and musically talented teen at an interracial inner city school (rent it on all digital platforms). He also shined in the 1961 film adaptation of Lorraine Hansberry’s 1959 play “A Raisin in the Sun,” directed by Daniel Petrie. Rent it on all digital platforms.
Poitier won his Best Actor prize for the 1963 film “Lilies of the Field,” directed by Ralph Nelson, about a traveling handyman who helps a group of nuns build a chapel in the desert. It was the first time a person of color won an Oscar for a leading role, and only the second time a person of color won an Academy Award, after Hattie McDaniel won Best Supporting Actress for “Gone With the Wind.” Stream “The Lilies of the Field” on Tubi, the Roku Channel, Hoopla or rent it on other digital platforms.
Before winning in 1963, Poitier was nominated for Best Actor for the 1958 film “The Defiant Ones,” alongside co-star Tony Curtis. Directed by Stanley Kramer, the film follows two convicts who escape from prison chained together and have to learn to get along while evading capture. Stream it with your public library card on Kanopy.
In 1967, Poitier starred in a string of films that defined the era and remain classics to this day. He starred as a teacher in London in “To Sir, with Love” directed by James Clavell (streaming on Fubo, Crackle and available to rent), as well as “In the Heat of the Night,” opposite Rod Steiger, directed by Norman Jewison. Set in small-town Mississippi, Poitier played a Black detective from Philly who is mistakenly suspected of murder and then reluctantly asked to investigate the crime. Rent it on all digital platforms.
Also in 1967, Poitier co-starred with Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn and Katherine Houghton in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” directed by Kramer, about a daughter bringing home an African American fiance to meet her parents. Watch it on Starz or rent it elsewhere.
Poitier worked steadily throughout his career, and a few of his later career highlights include the 1992 ensemble picture “Sneakers” starring Robert Redford (rent it on all platforms). He retired from acting in 1997, serving as the Bahamian nonresident ambassador to Japan until 2007. His last film was Michael Caton-Jones’ "The Jackal” (1997), starring Bruce Willis and Richard Gere, about an IRA fighter released from prison to stop an assassin (rent it or stream on Amazon Freevee).
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