Actor Sidney Poitier's (born 1924) presence in film during the 1950s and 1960s opened up the possibility for bigger and better roles for black performers. At a 1992 banquet sponsored by the august American Film Institute (AFI), a bevy of actors,...

As one of the first African-American actors to consistently appear in serious dramatic roles in American films, Sidney Poitier is acknowledged as a major catalyst for Hollywood offering more substantive roles to black performers. In 1992, the American...

Sir Sidney Poitier KBE, (pronounced /ˈpwɑːtieɪ/) (born February 20 1927), is an Academy Award-winning Bahamian American actor, film director, and activist. He broke through as a star in acclaimed performances in American films and plays, which, by...

Roberts, Kimberly C. Philadelphia Tribune, The 02-01-2000 Sidney Poitier's brilliance revealed Nearly 33 years after his stunning performance in "Lilies of the Field," Sidney Poitier remains the only African American ever to win an Academy Award for Best Actor. His quiet dignity...

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It’s hard to imagine two people whose combined influence could get more important people off their couches and over to the Waldorf-Astoria on a Sunday night (May 20) than Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel and talk-show hostess Oprah Winfrey, who was being honored by Mr....

It's months away from being on bookshelves, but fans can't get enough of the seventh _ and final _ Harry Potter book, no matter the cost.Not only is "Harry Potter and Deathly Hallows" topping the charts of Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.com, a deluxe edition,...

Let's Do It Again is like a black child's version of [George Roy Hill's] The Sting—an innocent, cheerful farce about an Atlanta milkman … and a factory worker … who go to New Orleans and pull off a great scam. They outwit the black mobsters … and win enough money for their lodge back home, The Sons and Daughters of Shaka, to put up a new meeting hall. Nobody is hurt, and everybody who deserves a comeuppance gets it. Their con involves hypnotizing a spindly pr...

Buck and the Preacher, a likeably unpretentious Western which marks the directorial debut of Sidney Poitier, gains much of its charm from the sly manipulation of genre conventions. It's about a taciturn ex-cavalryman and a shifty preacher leading a wagon train westward under repeated attack by a gang of bandits. Nothing much new here, except perhaps the mating of the Ford tradition (many echoes of Wagon Master) with modern anti-heroism. The real twist, though, is that the pioneers are black, the band...

A change from familiar Western customs is afforded by [Buck and the Preacher, a] mildly comic and moderately dramatic account of the troubles that befell some of the freed slaves after the Civil War, when they headed for pastures new, but were impeded by white nightriders who wanted to keep them in the South to go on picking cotton for peanuts. It might not sound like a subject for laughter; and when it begins in beautifully moody sepia it looks as if it will be a solemn tale. But shortly after the colour h...