In 1963, Sidney Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field.
In 1967 Sidney Poitier starred in three well-received films -To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner - making him the top box office star of that year.
In 2002, Sidney Poitier was chosen by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to receive an Honorary Award, designated "To Sidney Poitier in recognition of his remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."
In the 1960s, for many of his films, he was paid in a way known as "dollar one participation" which basically means he begins collecting a cut of the film's gross from the first ticket sold.
Is a long time friend of singer, fellow actor and activist Harry Belafonte. They were born 9 days apart. They met in New York at age 20 before either was in show business.
Of Haitian ancestry from his father's side.
On August 12, 2009, Sidney Poitier was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the United States of America's highest civilian honor, by President Barack Obama.
Poitier received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama in 2009.
Poitier was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974. He is thus entitled to be known as Sir Sidney Poitier, but does not himself use this title.
Poitier was the first black actor to place autograph, hand, and footprints in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre (June 23, 1967).
Premiere Magazine ranked him as #20 on a list of the Greatest Movie Stars of All Time in their Stars in Our Constellation feature (2005).
Prostate cancer survivor.
Received the Screen Actors Guild's Life Achievement Award.
Sidney Poitier has written three autobiographical books, This Life (1980), The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography (2000) and Life Beyond Measure - letters to my Great-Granddaughter (2008, an Oprah's Book Club selection).
Sidney Poitier's Salary for Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) was $200,000 and % of the gross profits; In the Heat of the Night (1967) $200,000 + 20% of the gross profits
Since 1997 Sidney Poitier has been the Bahamian ambassador to Japan.
Sits on USC School of Cinema-Television's Board of Councilors.
Was named #22 greatest actor on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute
Was nominated for Broadway's 1960 Tony Award as Best Actor (Dramatic) for "A Raisin in the Sun," a role that he recreated in the film version of the same same, A Raisin in the Sun (1961).
When he came to New York from the Caribbean to become an actor, he was so impoverished at first that he slept in the bus station. To get his first major role in No Way Out (1950), he lied to director Joseph L. Mankiewicz and told him he was 27, when actually only 22 years old.