Word: poitiers
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...Academy Award was seen on American TV -the only one to make it to Santa Monica. For this alone he might well have touched off the explosion of applause that followed the sound of his name. But there was a bit more to it than that. Sidney Poitier, voted best actor of 1963 for his performance in Lilies of the Field, is the first Negro who has ever won a top Oscar. If the Academy Awards presentations lacked everything in showmanship, the selection of Sidney Poitier at least coincided with the sentiment of the times...
When his name was read by Anne Bancroft, Sidney Poitier jumped out of his seat and headed for the stage with big bouncing strides, more like a great Negro high jumper than a great Negro actor. He gave Bancroft an exuberant hug, turned to the audience and said emotionally: "It has been a long journey to this moment...
Inevitably, some people thought that Poitier had been awarded an Oscar more as a Negro than as an actor. He answers this one best with his own confidence: "Watching the performances pound for pound, I had to accept the fact that I wasn't a charity case," he says. As an actor, in all his better movies he has managed to suggest all the frustration and anger of being a Negro, without tumbling into mere bitterness and histrionics-no mean acting feat...
...Poitier has 1½ years of formal education and a Ph.D. in odd jobs. In Miami, he worked as a parking attendant, and learned about the COLORED ONLY, WHITE ONLY signs. From the islands he had brought with him only the vaguest experience of prejudice, and the sudden force of it was more than he could live with. In less than a year, he had migrated to Manhattan, arriving with...
Hollywood, April 13--Sidney Poitier became the first Negro to win a top Oscar award. He was honored as best actor of the year by the Motion Picture Academy last night for his performance in "Lilies of the Field...