Sidney Poitier

Sidney Poitier was the first black actor to win an Academy Award for best actor for his performance in Lilies of the Field in 1963, and is credited with breaking the color barrier in Hollywood.

An actor, director, producer, diplomat and bestselling author, his landmark films include The Defiant Ones, A Patch of Blue, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and To Sir, With Love. His first novel, Montaro Caine, a “corporate thriller with a twist of religion and science fiction…a tale sure to please his many fans,” (Publishers Weekly), is published this May. Among many other accolades, Poitier has been awarded the Screen Actors Guild’s highest honor, the Life Achievement Award, for an outstanding career and humanitarian accomplishment. In 2009, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama.