European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 6, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse Poitier praised amid landmark film career by Bob Thomas the associated press in English it s an in French its an in either language it was agreed that Sidney Poitier was deserving of an homage at the Montreal world film festival. The reasons Are All there two Academy nominations and the big prize for lilies of the Field. 1963 Success As a film director Uptown saturday night. Hanky Panky \ an emmy nomination this year for separate but equal. Poitier is recognized As the Jackie Robinson of films a Man who carved his Way through Hollywood a discrimination and proved that a Black actor could become a Box office Star. Before a near capacity audience in a place Des arts theater Poitier reminisced with humor and remarkable frankness about his Early years. He was born on feb. 20, 1924, in Miami where his parents had come to sell a Boatload of tomatoes from their farm on cat Island in the Bahamas. Poitier spent his first \ we years on cat Island living close to nature in a place with no electricity and no running water. His parents moved to Nassau where he proved such a troublemaker that he was shipped off to Miami to live with a brother. A i knew absolutely nothing about segregation but 1 found out in a hurry a he recalled. As a drugstore delivery boy he brought a Small package to a woman a House and was puzzled when she insisted that he go to the Back door. That night the Kun flux klan visited his brother s House with a warning. After several encounters with bigotry he boarded a bus for new York City arriving with s3 in his pocket. Poitier worked As a dishwasher sleeping for a time on the roof of the Brill building a theater District building Long an enclave of songwriters and producers. After a year in the army he answered an and for actors at the american negro theater. One night when Harry Belafonte was unable to appear in a play. Poitier substituted for him. A career was born. In an interview at the hotel Meridian Headquarters for the festival poker talked of other matters including the upsurge of a new generation of Black filmmakers such As Spike Lee do the right thing. She s gotta have it and John Singleton Boyz n the Hood. Quot i m impressed with them As he commented a and i Hope that their output will be exemplary of a healthy variety. That s just a wish on my part. A their films should be their vision of the world their vision of life itself of Humankind. I wish that they have a sense of history. I wish they exercise some time for hopefulness and positiveness. That would make me very although Poitier s career and Public life have been marked by a hopefulness and positiveness Quot from the beginning it has not always been a smooth journey. A mine was not an easy Road Quot he said. A but. To characterize it As All difficult would be incorrect. Serendipity was running up and Down All those years. It was t All my doing. It was the Good graces of a lot of people a some names i recall some i can t recall. Some faces i be forgotten. Quot but a Good deed Here a Good deed there a Good thought Here a Good comment there All added up to my career in one Way or another. So it s been kind of a Long Road but it was a Good journey Poitier made his film debut with no Way out in 1950, a time when Black actors were largely absent from the screen. He established his presence with the Blac Kintard Jungle 1955something of value 1957 and the defiant ones 1958. His first Oscar nomination. The l%0s brought a succession of hits a Raisin in the Sun. Lilies of the Field. A Patch of Blue. In the heat of the night. To sir with love. Guess who s coming to dinner. He started directing in 1972 with the Western Buck and the preacher "1 had been an actor for a Long time Quot he said Quot and i was quite aware of the mercurial nature of the careers of actors. More not. Actors have almost As Brief careers As by 1976, Poitier decided he had achieved Quot All 1 could have wished As an he turned to directing full time but also devoted himself to things he had had Little time for a i wrote two books and some screenplays i travelled i studied astronomy i read philosophy. I did a lot of interesting things and they did wonders for my life. 1 understood More around me and i understood More inside while in Montreal the 67-year-old Poitier attracted wonder for his youthfulness. Said one admirer Quot whatever it is you ought to bottle it. You could outsell Paul Newman a salad Sidney Poitier played a Philadelphia detective teaming with Rod Steiger whose part was a Mississippi sheriff in the 1967 movie in the heal of the a 1991 sunday a
