Powered By Blogger

Monday, June 4, 2012

52 Week 23: Sidney Poitier - On the Silver Screen

Solum vivis semel

Sidney Poitier is a great actor, humanitarian, diplomat and more. He received a great many awards during his acting career, most important of which was his Academy Award for Best Actor, the first for a Black Actor. 

He starred in such seminal works as To Sir with Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess who’s coming to Dinner along with his work in Theatre. He also directed and worked in a variety of roles within the entertainment industry. For both his longevity and the impressiveness of his contributions, he received an honorary award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. What impressed me most about him was his dedication to his craft. Initially, he had a fairly thick accent and was not taken seriously as an actor, but he persevered and was eventually rewarded with a role on Broadway. That was all he needed, and he never looked back. He managed to do what was very difficult at that time; he played varied roles that were not simple and crude stereotypes and his movies tended to be both critical and financial successes.
He also has had a long and distinguished career in diplomacy and has acted as the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan since 1997 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009.

He was a great actor, has been a great diplomat and has always exuded an air of rarified dignity at all times.

Greatest quote:   
"If I'm remembered for having done a few good things and if my presence here has sparked some good energies, that's plenty"

No comments:

Post a Comment