Sidney Poitier, The First Black Man To Ever Win An Oscar, Has Died at 94
It's been a dark year so far in Hollywood.
Just over a week after losing Golden-Era icon Betty White, today the Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs confirmed that actor Sidney Poitier, known best as the first Black man to ever win an Academy Award, has died at the age of 94.
As of right now, the circumstances surrounding his death are unknown: We do not know what caused his death, nor where he was when it happened.
Aside from his Oscar-winning role in 1963's Lilies of the Field, Poitier was best known as Mark Thackeray in To Sir With Love, Detective Virgil Tibbs in "In the Heat of the Night" ("They call me Mr. Tibbs."), and John Prentice in Guess Who's Coming To Dinner? - all of which, it's worth noting, came out in the same year (1967).
Poitier was more than an actor - he was also a civil rights activist who dabbled in diplomacy. As a dual citizen of the Bahamas and the United States, he served as the Bahamian Ambassador to Japan for ten years, from 1997 to 2007. He was also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2009.
Poitier is survived by his wife of 45 years, Joanna Poitier, and their six daughters.
