12/27/2022 0 Comments Wake the dragon wow ach![]() No romances - none where the woman wasn’t literally blind, as she was in “A Patch of Blue,” none in which the trouble wasn’t the romance itself, where the romance wasn’t in trouble because of the fact of him. One is left to imagine how much greater the greatest could’ve been. But he knows as well as I do that these nuances were fundamental to his success.” That saintliness was the exquisitely bitter joke of John Guare’s “Six Degrees of Separation” - that a sure way for a con man to enter the hearts and homes of Manhattan’s white elite was to pose as the preppy son of Mr. Sidney is a wonderful actor, and he mesmerized audiences with all his performances. I don’t want to put the full rap on race. Belafonte wrote in his memoir, “My Song.” “I didn’t want to tone down my sexuality, either. “Sidney radiated a truly saintly calm and dignity,” Mr. Poitier’s very best friend was Harry Belafonte even he had his concerns. Poitier’s apogee, this newspaper ran a scathing piece by Clifford Mason that asked, “ Why Does White America Love Poitier So?” The collaborative act opened all parties to the opprobrium of their respective people. It’s what they did or what was carried out in their name that needs to be undone. Poitier was accused of being all kinds of Uncle Tom, because the task of undoing has tended to require collaboration with white people. The undoer must be both historic and a vessel of history. I don’t know that I’m worthy of being in that kind of company, but I certainly respect them to the point that I would appreciate being in such company. It’s the one - I follow some of the very best actors in America. I admire the man, not just because of his colossal achievements, but also because of who he was, his strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted, and the way he plotted and navigated his life’s journey. Was it a thrill for me to accept the role? Well, first the thrill was to have been offered the role, and accepting it was never a question. We need to understand the values that are the foundation of the personality. Poitier.” It is the actor’s job to create the essence of the man, and to do that, we need more than his gestures and more than the cadence of his speech. My terms meant that I would get there if I am accepted as I perceived myself. Transcript Sidney Poitier, Pioneering Actor, Dies at 94 Sidney Poitier was the first Black actor to win the Academy Award for best actor, for “Lilies of the Field,” and helped open the door for Black actors in the film industry. Poitier because he Wouldn’t Have Been Right for the Part. There are maybe a dozen roles, capstones, that nobody would have offered to Mr. I mean, he could’ve done it - could’ve played Cool Hand Luke, could’ve been the Graduate, could’ve done “Bullitt,” could have been Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Poitier achieved his greatness partially as a matter of “despite.” He achieved all he did despite knowing what he couldn’t do. ![]() He was making just about a movie a year, many of them unmemorable. Poitier had a good 20-year run as a star, from 1958, when “The Defiant Ones” came out, to 1978, when the last of his hit trilogy with Bill Cosby left movie theaters. But the radical shock of Sidney Poitier was the stress his stardom placed on “man.” Human. Movie after movie insisted he be the Black man for white America, which he was fine with, of course. But it must, since Hollywood made his race the matter. Who did more with less? Of whom was less expected as much as more? Who had more eyes and more daggers, more hopes and fears and intentions aimed his way, at his person, his skill and, by extension, his people? Race shouldn’t matter here. Am I being controversial? Confrontational? Contrarian? No. You mean the greatest Black movie star? I don’t. The greatest American movie star is Sidney Poitier. And it will never change because the answer is easy. Were anyone to ask me who’s the greatest American movie star, my answer would never change. ![]()
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