Best Actor Winner Sidney Poitier Passes Away at 94

Bahamian-American actor and director Sidney Poitier has passed away at the age of 94. No cause of death was given, but the news of the Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night star’s passing was confirmed by Bahamian Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and by several Bahamian news outlets.

The iconic actor was nominated for Best Actor at the Academy Awards twice and won the honor in 1963 for his performance in Lilies of the Field. He also won an Honorary Academy Award in 2001 for his career. The prolific actor also won several Golden Globe awards during his career including Best Actor for Lilies of the Field, the Henrietta Award in 1968, and the Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1981. He also won a Grammy for his spoken word album The Measure of a Man in 2001 and was nominated for two Emmy awards for Outstanding Actor in a Limited Series or Movie for his work in Separate but Equal and Mandela and de Klerk.

Poitier’s career as an actor started in the 40s and continued until 2006. Beyond his acting, Poitier also directed a number of films including Uptown Saturday Night, Let’s Do It Again, Stir Crazy, Hanky Panky starring Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, and Ghost Dad. Frequent collaborators included Harry Belafonte, Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, and Bill Cosby.

ComingSoon sends condolences to Poitier’s friends and family.

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