Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon

Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon

In the first full biography of actor Sidney Poitier, Aram Goudsouzian analyzes the life and career of a Hollywood legend, from his childhood in the Bahamas to his 2002 Oscar for lifetime achievement. Poitier is a gifted actor, a great American success story, an intriguing personality, and a political symbol; his life and career illuminate America's racial history.In such films as Lilies of the Field, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, Poitier's middle-class, mannered, virtuous screen persona contradicted prevailing film stereotypes of blacks as half-wits, comic servants, or oversexed threats. His screen image and public support of nonviolent integration assuaged the fears of a broad political center, and by 1968, Poitier was voted America's favorite movie star.Through careful readings of every Poitier film, Goudsouzian shows that Poitier's characters often made sacrifices for the good of whites and rarely displayed sexuality. As the only black leading man during the civil rights era, Poitier chose roles and public positions that negotiated the struggle for dignity. By 1970, times had changed and Poitier was the target of a backlash from film critics and black radicals, as the new heroes of "blaxploitation" movies reversed the Poitier model.In the 1970s, Poitier shifted his considerable talents toward directing, starring in, and producing popular movies that employed many African Americans, both on and off screen. After a long hiatus, he returned to starring roles in the late 1980s. More recently, the film industry has reappraised his career, and Poitier has received numerous honors recognizing his multi-faceted work for black equality in Hollywood. As this biography affirms, Poitier remains one of American popular culture's foremost symbols of the possibilities for and limits of racial equality.From Publishers WeeklyPoitier has been revered as the first black superstar and criticized for his saintly, sexless and sentimentalized screen image. In this intriguing biography, Goudsouzian, a Hamilton College history professor, thoughtfully depicts the actor's efforts to handle both praise and damnation. Poitier's is a rags-to-riches story: working as a butcher's assistant and construction worker, he learned to speak properly by listening to radio news reporters. Goudsouzian astutely notes that Poitier's dynamic performance in Joseph Mankiewicz's No Way Out was compromised by studio insistence that his mannerisms never suggest the "slightest animal urge." The true, full-blooded Poitier burst forth in 1955's The Blackboard Jungle, and he won a 1963 Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field. But details of Poitier's triumphs never soften the book's hard-hitting, political tone. One memorable passage tells of Poitier's efforts to secure a hotel room in 1956 in Nairobi. He was turned away until the hotel manager discovered Poitier's Something of Value salary was $30,000 and commented, "anyone who makes thirty thousand dollars for three months work is not black." Goudsouzian covers Poiter's romances with model/dancer Juanita Hardy, actress/singers Diahann Carroll and Eartha Kitt and actress Joanna Shimkus. Goudsouzian understands the dynamics behind Poitier's pictures, and carefully analyzes Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, A Patch of Blue and To Sir, with Love. Intense anecdotes highlighting Poitier's temper, occasional womanizing and insecurities keep him from appearing as a distant icon. The story loses steam in its final passages, but ends on a high note when Poitier admits, "I set out to prove to myself that I was capable of moving a mountain."Copyright