Sidney was born prematurely on February 20, 1927 to a poor family in Miami, Florida while the Bahamian family was on a vacation. After going back to the Bahamas, Sidney's mom, Evelyn, and his dad, Reginald, tried to raise Sidney and his brother, Cyril, to one day become great people. Sidney started "showing signs of becoming a juvenile delinquent (source …show more content…
He soon lost his brother due to cancer and also lost his wife due to sickness. He quickly remarried. With his new wife he helped raise two more children. He now had six children. His two additional children were Anika, and Sydney Poitier. He raised them with the help of Joanna Shimkus, his second wife.
With the help and support of his new family, Sidney was now ready to face whatever would come his way in order to still act. He went back to Hollywood and "had a big breakthrough with "Blackboard Jungle" (Source 2)". He was offered a lead role in this film and filled the role with great enthusiasm. This movie earned him many lead roles in many other films and he always tried his best in all the roles he had.
He soon was awarded the honor of becoming the first African American to win an Academy Award. A couple of years later he was awarded with the honor of being the first African American to earn an Oscar. This was a great accomplishment for him and he was thrilled. He was now motivated more than ever to act full time. After his Oscar win movie companies were wanting him to act in many of their lead …show more content…
He is very devoted to his acting career and will let nothing stand in the way of it. When any bad comments are made about him, he ignores it and keeps doing what he loves. He tries to fill any roles that are open to him and he fills them as best he can.
Sidney has done two interviews, acted in fifty-five movies, directed nine movies, done six magazine cover photos, seven articles, and one biographical movie! He is known for having shown in many of his movies, television shows, and interviews, that African Americans are just as talented as white people and that we should all be treated equally. He also believes that the color of your skin does not matter. What matters is how you deal the challenges in your life.
Many people recognize Sidney as the man who "broke the color barrier in film" (source 1). Sidney does not act for the money, he acts simply because he loves it. He is mostly known for doing comedy films but can also be seen in several crime and drama