Sidney Poitier: Trailblazing Screen Legend

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Academy of Achievement

Film, Politics, Arts, Self-help, Sports, Society & Culture, Success, Literature, Humanitarian, Military, Social Justice, Technology, Podcast, Achievement, Music, Science

4.6 • 943 Ratings

🗓️ 27 February 2016

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sidney Poitier changed America’s view of black men. And he changed Hollywood (though the change is far from over, given the issues of diversity at this year’s Oscars.). The star of “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “The Defiant Ones,” and “In The Heat of the Night” was the first African-American to win an Academy Award - for “Lillies of the Field” in 1964. He was a leading man and box office sensation throughout the 1950’s and 60’s, portraying a huge array of characters with a dignity, courage and humanity that was radical for its time. In this episode, featuring an interview with Poitier at 82, you’ll hear him discuss how his childhood on a tiny island in the Bahamas made all the difference in his view of himself, and in the choices he made throughout his career as an actor. (c ) American Academy of Achievement 2016

Transcript

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0:00.0	Madame, this child is gifted.
0:06.0	And I heard that enough that I started to believe it.
0:09.0	If you have the opportunity, not a perfect opportunity,
0:12.0	and you don't take it, you may never have another job.
0:15.0	It all was so clear. It was just like the picture started to form itself.
0:19.6	There was no way in which a lie could prevail over the truth, darkness over light, death over life.
0:27.0	Every day I wake up and decide. Today I'm going to love my life.
0:34.0	Decide.
0:39.0	My advice is if they don't break your leg once when you go in that place stay out of there. And then along come these differential experiences that you don't look for, you don't plan for,
0:46.3	but boy you better not miss them. At the
0:55.0	64 Academy Awards,
0:57.0	actress Ann Bancroft presented one of the most coveted
1:00.0	Oscars of the night.
1:02.0	The nominees for the best performance by an actor. most coveted the most coveted Oscars of the night.
1:04.0	The nominees for the best performance by an actor
1:05.0	are Albert Finney and Tom Jones.
1:07.0	Richard Harris in this sporting life.
1:10.0	Rex Harrison and Cleopatra, Paul Newman in her, Sydney Poitier in Lilies of the Field.
1:21.6	The winner is Sydney Poitier.
1:25.0	That glamorous evening, Sydney Poitier became the first African American to win best actor.
1:33.3	There have only been three others since.
1:36.6	Because it is a long journey to this moment.
	...

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