Hollywood legend Sir Sidney Poitier has died. He was 94.
Poitier broker many racial barriers in Hollywood, even becoming the first Black man to win an Oscar for Best Actor in 1964.
"I had a sense of responsibility not only to myself and to my time, but certainly to the people I represented. So I was charged with a responsibility to represent them in ways that they would see and say, ‘OK, I like that,'" said Poitier back in 2008.
His film credits include "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", "A Raisin in the Sun", "The Defiant Ones", "Paris Blues", "In the Heat of the Night", "To Sir With Love", and many others.
Potier was born in on Feb. 20, 1927, in Miami, Florida. His Bahamian parents were in the city on vacation. By the time he was 15, his parents sent him on a boat to America in search of a better life. However, living in America posed a new challenge for the boy - racism. But he decided early on that he wouldn't allow that to rule his life.
In an interview, he said, "The law said, ‘You cannot work here, live here, go to school here, shop here.' And I said, ‘Why can't I?' And everything around me said, ‘Because of who you are.' And I thought, I'm a 15-year-old kid - and who I am is really terrific!"
Poitier is survived by his wife, Joanna Shimkus, and five children, Beverly, Pamela, Sherri, Anika, and Sydney Tamiia. He was predeceased by his daughter Gina Poitier in 2018.
