Sidney Poitier (1927-2022)

Both an esteemed actor and a respected humanitarian, Sidney Poitier received an (1963), becoming the first Black man to win the award. Featured in such movies as (1958, which earned him his first Oscar nomination), (1965), (1967) and (1967), Poitier was Hollywood’s first Black movie star. “It’s been an enormous responsibility,” Poitier told Oprah Winfrey in 2000. “And I accepted it, and I lived in a way that showed how I respected that responsibility. In order for others to come behind me, there were certain things I had to do.”