Sidney Poitier Net Worth

Sidney Poitier's Quotes

• We all suffer from the preoccupation that there exists ... in the loved one, perfection.
• I decided in my life that I would do nothing that did not reflect positively on my father's life.
• [on writer/director Richard Brooks] He was both intense and very feeling, very human. He had a wonderful, wonderful sense of other people. He was not particularly enamored of himself. He was the kind off guy who had a sense of fairness, and he employed that sense in his life, and in his work, so that some people were surprised at him, some people deeply loved him, and some people were just put off by him.
• [from Sidney Poitier's speech about Widmark at the D.W. Griffith Award for Lifetime Achievement] The generosity of spirit that lights his way will also warm your heart...
• [saluting film writers and directors, at the 2002 Academy Awards] They knew the odds that stood against them. Still those filmmakers persevered, speaking through their art to the best in all of us. And I benefited from their effort. The industry benefited from their effort. America benefited from their effort. And, in many ways, the world has also benefited from their effort.

Interesting Facts about Sidney Poitier

1. In 1963, he became the first black man to win an Academy Award for Best Actor in a Lead Role for his role as Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field (1963). The first black man to win an Academy Award was James Baskett (although an Honorary Award) for his role in Song of the South (1946).
2. 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 Geen uitweg (1950), he lied to director Joseph L. Mankiewicz and told him he was 27, when actually only 22 years old.
3. Sits on USC School of Cinema-Television's Board of Councilors.
4. Stanley Kramer approached him about co-starring in The Defiant Ones (1958), which made him a bigger star, but admitted that if he did not take the role of "Porgy" in Porgy and Bess (1959) for Samuel Goldwyn it might kill his chances to get the role in The Defiant Ones (1958) as Goldwyn had that much clout in Hollywood.
5. He was awarded an honorary knighthood of the Order of the British Empire in 1974. As an honorary knight, he is not entitled to call himself or to be known as "Sir Sidney Poitier" but he may use the postnomials (KBE or K.B.E.) if he so chooses.
6. His Stir Crazy (1980) was the highest grossing film directed by a black filmmaker until Scary Movie (2000), directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans almost 20 years later.
7. While trying to sing with some fellow actors in Off-Broadway theatre he found he was tone deaf.
8. Younger brother of Cyril Poitier. Former brother-in-law of light-heavyweight champion Archie Moore.
9. 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.
10. Has an honorary doctorate degree from Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania.
11. Speaks Russian fluently.
12. First black actor to place autograph, hand, and footprints in the cement at Grauman's Chinese Theatre (June 23, 1967).
13. 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).
14. Was named #22 greatest actor on the 50 Greatest Screen Legends by the American Film Institute.
15. 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 name, A Raisin in the Sun (1961).
16. Future wife Joanna Shimkus encouraged him to direct his first film, Buck de priester en de duivel (1972), after he and the original director could not agree creatively.
17. His performance as Virgil Tibbs in De Nacht van Inspecteur Tibbs (1967) is ranked #55 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
18. His performance as Virgil Tibbs in De Nacht van Inspecteur Tibbs (1967) is ranked #20 on Premiere magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
19. During the early 1980s, a man named David Hampton conned his way into the homes of several wealthy and prominent New Yorkers (including a dean at Columbia University) by falsely claiming to be Poitier's son. Playwright John Guare, fascinated by the way the story illustrated the magic that the mere mention of Poiter's name held for people of his generation (especially white people), based his play "Six Degrees of Separation" on Hampton's story. The play was adapted into the movie Six Degrees of Separation (1993), with Will Smith as the character based upon Hampton.
20. Along with Gary Cooper, is the most represented actor on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time, with five of his films on the list. They are: A Raisin in the Sun (1961) at #65, The Defiant Ones (1958) at #55, Lilies of the Field (1963) at #46, Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) at #35, and De Nacht van Inspecteur Tibbs (1967) at #21.