From EW News
Trailblazing Oscar-winning actor, philanthrapist and presidential medal of freedom recipient Sir Sidney Poiter has died at the age of 94.
Poitier became the first African American to win an Oscar for best actor for ‘Lilies of the Field’ in April 1964.
At the time, the Civil Rights Movement was leading to sweeping changes throughout the United States.
He was also the first Black actor nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award for the 1958 film ‘The Defiant Ones’
Some of his other most memorable roles include ‘Blackboard Jungle’ as Gregory Miller, a student at an interracial inner-city school; ‘Guess who’s coming to Dinner’, a daring indictment to racism as it presented a positive depiction of an interracial couple at a time when interracial marriage remained illegal in numerous states; and ‘To Sit, With Love’, an out of work engineer who takes on a job teaching an all-white class of students in the slums of London’s East End.
Poiter would have celebrated his 95th birthday on February 20.
