Sidney Poitier, the best films of the first African American actor to win the Oscar. PHOTO

Actor, politician, activist: Sidney Poitier it has been so many things in the course of its long life, and it has gone down in history as one of the greatest performers in Hollywood. From the first Oscar for a black actor to the global success with “Guess who’s coming to dinner”, Poitier has distinguished himself for some masterful interpretations during his career. (In photo: Sidney Poitier awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama)

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In 1963 it becomes the first African American to win the Oscar Prize as best leading actor for his performance in “The Lilies of the Field“: In the film Poitier plays a worker who runs into a group of nuns, who believe him sent by God to help them build a chapel

Sidney Poitier’s career

His most famous role is certainly that in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner”In 1967, with Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. Considered one of the first films to show the marriage of a mixed couple in a positive light, the film is considered one Hollywood landmark

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Bringing the then 28-year-old Sidney Poitier to the fore is his work in “The seed of violence”, A 1955 film in which the actor plays the character of Gregory W. Miller. The film is the cinematic adaptation of Ed McBain’s novel on conditions of schools in the poorest neighborhoods of big cities

There first nomination he arrives at the Oscar for his role in “The mud wall“In 1958. Sidney Poitier plays Noah Cullen, a prisoner on the run forced to collaborate with a white fellow inmate to whom he is chained

In 1961 we find Poitier as head of the family in “A bunch of sunshine“: The film reveals the difficulties for an African American family in living the ‘American dream’, at a time when racism was still rife in the United States. The film was presented in competition at the 14th Cannes Film Festival

Another significant work in Sidney Poiter’s career is in “Meeting in Central Park“, In 1965. In the film, his character, Gordon Ralfe, overcomes the resistance of a family in difficulty and helps a blind young man (played by Elizabeth Hartman) to have the life she always dreamed of

A few years after the Oscar, Sidney Poitier is the protagonist of another Hollywood masterpiece: “Inspector Tibbs’ hot night“Of 1967, alongside Rod Steiger. The phrase “They call me mister Tibbs” has gone down in history, as has the film: the American Film Institute has in fact included it in 75th place in the ranking of 100 best American films Of all times

In the same year Sidney Poitier is the protagonist in “The school of violence”, In which he plays an unemployed engineer who accepts a professorship for to teach in a problematic school from London. The actor’s performance is among the most significant of his career

In a decades long career, to emerge among the works of Poitier there is also “On the trail of the killer“In 1988. The actor plays FBI agent Warren Stantin, on the hunt for a thief / murderer who escaped from Stantin himself

In 1992 he is alongside Robert Redford in “The lords of the scam”, Where she plays a former spy who works as a security consultant. Poitier’s interpretation shows a different and more side comic of one of the greatest actors of the last century