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Sidney Poitier: Difference between revisions
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Before [[Sidney Poitier]], the notion of a Black man being a leading actor in dramatic American films was all but scoffed at, but this magnificent actor broke through the prejudice to make an invaluable precedent for minority actors, and paid the price for it along the way.
First hitting the big time in 1955 as a bright-but-troubled high school delinquent in the early [[Save Our Students]] drama ''[[Blackboard Jungle]]'', Poitier soon became a special presence in classic films like ''[[The Defiant Ones]]'' and was the first Black man to win an [[Academy Award|Oscar]] for Best Actor for ''[[Lilies
As such, Poitier's roles typically embodied [[Positive Discrimination]] such as in his most famous films being an unrealistically perfect person, if deliberately desexualized, in every way. To be fair, he didn't help his case at the height of his career when he turned down the chance to start in a TV movie adaptation of ''[[Othello]]'' which could have at least been a real change of pace playing a very human tragic hero. The film ''[[Guess Who's Coming to Dinner]]'' is the most blatant with Poitier's character being an successful doctor who is graceful, well mannered and deferential to his white fiancee's parents to ask their blessing before any thought of sex or marriage.
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