Sidney Poitier dead at 94 R.I.P. (ETA) and his movies

[titsonritz]

Sidney Poitier starred in some great movies, I always liked him. He was also the first black man to win an Oscar. R.I.P.

I recently watched The Bedford Incident which was a serious nuclear-confrontation film in answer to Kubrick's comic farce film Dr. Strangelove. One of his lessor know movies worth a watch.

Oscar winner and groundbreaking star Sidney Poitier dies (https://apnews.com/article/sidney-poitier-dead-214e66b7e52909bdc64465e9ff4a1339)

[markm]

The media is having a wonderful time with their usual obsession with the color of this man's skin.

I know nothing about the guy, but I don't find theater/acting to be THAT honorable of a career... no matter what your skin looks like. And in this age, that career puts you amongst the sickest perverts on the planet.

[SteyrAUG]

It's hard not to be about race to some degree when the rest of the world is making everything about the fact that you are black.

Seems as though he was a decent enough guy who had a nice life so good for him.

Because Hollywood DID have a race barrier, and probably longer than the US Army did (we should remember that) it became incumbent upon somebody to be the "first black guy" in an insidious game where one poor bastard has to represent an entire class of people...most of whom he has never even met. It shouldn't have been necessary but that is how Hollywood decided to play the game, a game with rules that dictate "make money." So when Hollywood decries racism...it's as hollow to me as Senator Byrd, former Grand Dragon when he used to explain to people that racism is wrong.

But because of their system and it's history, we had to have a Poitier before we could get to Denzel Washington who is one of the first great actors who didn't require the word "black" in front of the word "actor" to be relevant. Poitier also seems to have resisted participating in counter racism unlike Spike Lee and Harry Balafonte.

[titsonritz]

I suppose, in all fairness, many of his movies dealt with racial issues. No Way Out, Blackboard Jungle, The Defiant Ones, A Patch of Blue, To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. to name a few.

[SteyrAUG]

I suppose, in all fairness, many of his movies dealt with racial issues. No Way Out, Blackboard Jungle, The Defiant Ones, A Patch of Blue, To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. to name a few.

What was he gonna do...make a kung fu flick? If you are the first [insert unique variable] person in film, most of your films are gonna be related to that variable. No different than comedians doing mostly comedy.

[utahjeepr]

I liked some of his films, some not. He was an important black figure though. As Steyr points out Hollywood was hardly diverse when he rose to stardom. He also succeeded at the ticket window. Americans paid to see a black actor in a starring role. There was certainly something about him that sold. Certainly the changing attitudes of the nation had a role as well.

RIP

[SteyrAUG]

I liked some of his films, some not. He was an important black figure though. As Steyr points out Hollywood was hardly diverse when he rose to stardom. He also succeeded at the ticket window. Americans paid to see a black actor in a starring role. There was certainly something about him that sold. Certainly the changing attitudes of the nation had a role as well.

RIP

I think with some, like James Stewart, the "decent guy" isn't really acting so much as actual personality coming through. I suspect that was probably the case with Poitier.

[jbjh]

The media is having a wonderful time with their usual obsession with the color of this man's skin.

I know nothing about the guy, but I don't find theater/acting to be THAT honorable of a career... no matter what your skin looks like. And in this age, that career puts you amongst the sickest perverts on the planet.

FFS, of course they are. A huge portion of his life was dedicated to civil rights and fighting racial discrimination. This is when there was still segregation and interracial marriage was illegal in some states. A Raisin In The Sun is based on an actual court case about housing discrimination (the playwright’s father was a plaintiff apparently).

And as far as I know from people who worked with him, he was an exceptionally decent man.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[titsonritz]

I think with some, like James Stewart, the "decent guy" isn't really acting so much as actual personality coming through. I suspect that was probably the case with Poitier.


FFS, of course they are. A huge portion of his life was dedicated to civil rights and fighting racial discrimination. This is when there was still segregation and interracial marriage was illegal in some states. A Raisin In The Sun is based on an actual court case about housing discrimination (the playwright’s father was a plaintiff apparently).

And as far as I know from people who worked with him, he was an exceptionally decent man.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

^^^This is big part of why I'm such a fan of movies with actors like James Stewart and Sidney Poitier. They were real people not like the self absorbed pedo scumbags making movies these days. I'd rather watch their movies.

This is a list of Poitier movies I own...

No Way Out (1950)
The Defiant One (1958)
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
Lilies in the Field (1963)
The Bedford Incident (1965)
The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965)
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
Buck and the Preacher (1972)
Shoot to Kill (1988)
The Jackal (1997)

If you were going to add one or two of his movies to that list, which ones would they be?

[FromMyColdDeadHand]

Is he still dead?