IN one of my forays in the secondhand bookstores at the mall, I found a treasure of a book. It was inserted in between heaps of children’s literature where no serious adult reader would scour. Obviously, it was left there by one who had browsed it to keep it from being discovered by others. Either he or she did not have the cash to buy it or decided to pick it up later when he or she gets the money. The book is entitled, “The Measure of a Man—A Spiritual Biography”, a candid memoir of the first black actor, Sidney Poitier, who won the Oscar Best Actor Award for his excellent performance in Lilies of the Field in 1964.
Poitier died on January 6, 2022 in his home in California. As USA Today had put it, Poitier had “starred in more than 40 movies, directed nine, and written four,” blazing a bright trail for other African-American actors to follow. For a colored man practicing his artistic craft in a highly racial environment, his achievement is an outstanding feat. No wonder that he was conferred the Life Achievement Award, the highest decoration given by the Screen Actors Guild. Poitier entertained his legions of fans across the world for more than five decades with his powerful screen presence. Who would forget the unforgettable characters he portrayed in memorable movies, which are now regarded as classics, like Lilies of the Field, In the Heat of Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, The Defiant Ones, A Patch of Blue and To Sir, With Love. His numerous works fed our fantasy and nourished our dreams when we were growing up. Poitier was one of the authentic heroes of my generation who had inspired the impoverished youth of many nationalities to rise above poverty.
Poitier grew up in Cat Island in the Bahamas. The island is only 46 miles long and three miles wide, which he roamed and explored while still a child. Their house had no plumbing or electricity, but lovely beaches surrounded it; fruit-bearing trees, cassavas and bananas grew wildly in the forest. The rivers and seas teemed with fish. It was paradise without a refrigerator, radio, telephone or television. His clothes were made of the cloth from grain sacks. For livelihood, the family depended on their farm, which abundantly produced tomatoes. But when the exportation of tomatoes to Miami was banned, the family moved to Nassau, the capital of Bahamas, when Poitier was 10 years old. He quit school at 12 and joined a crew of laborers as a helper. His parents sent him to Miami to live with his older brother to keep him away from the rowdy street boys. But after a while, he fled to New York where he took all sorts of odd jobs to survive. He slept in paid toilets to pass the night and get shower. He misstated his age to join the Army, where he became an orderly in a medical detachment. He was discharged in 1945 and applied as an actor in the American Negro Theater. He was rejected on his first audition for a minor role. With just a few years of schooling, he could hardly read the script and his thick Bahamian accent disgusted the man in charge, who grabbed the script from him and said: “Don’t waste my time. Get yourself a job as a dishwasher.”
So at 18, he was back as a dishwasher in New York, but this time he was determined to become an actor. A Jewish waiter in the restaurant where he worked took him under his wings and taught him how to read properly and pronounce words correctly. Each night at their quarters, the kind waiter tutored him. And he was accepted the second time around as an apprentice by the actors’ guild. He did very minor parts at the theater but he also worked as the janitor and errand boy. One time, the other Carribean young actor named Harry Belafonte could not play the lead role and the casting director tapped Poitier to replace Belafonte. Obviously, the director liked his performance and cast him in a Broadway play, Lysistrata. It played for several weeks and the critics did not like the show but they singled Poitier out as a “fresh comedic gift.” This led him to do other acting jobs in theater and gave him a break in the movies. He played a role in the movie No Way Out. This film was very memorable to him because it was the first movie seen by his parents, Reggie and Evelyn Poitier.
He had his ups and downs but eventually he became a very successful actor. In 1967, three of his films—To Sir, With Love; Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and In the Heat of Night—were the No. 1, 2 and 3 top grossing films in the world, which made him a certified top box office star. In the 1970s, he directed several films.
He was not only famous for his accomplishments as an actor and director but was also renowned for his works in the civil rights movement. He supported the movement when celebrities avoided getting involved in human rights and anti-racial causes in the 1960s when the issue of racism was threatening to tear the country apart. He was around when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, two of the most comprehensive civil rights legislation enacted by the US Congress. He helped elect President Barack Obama to become the first black president of America. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 1974, and he was conferred the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest American honor by President Obama in 2009.
Poitier ended his book by philosophically talking about the true measure of a man. “Luckily we puny individuals have only 75 or 82 or 96 years to look forward to, which is still a snap in the overall impenetrableness of time. So what we do is stay within the context of what’s practical, what’s real, what dreams can be fashioned into reality, what values can send us to bed comfortably and make us courageous enough to face our end with character.”
He lived up to age 94. He had played the roles of a black man who had dealt with various characters of a colored individual existing in a dysfunctional society. He tackled difficult roles, which gave respectability to his people and enhanced their self-esteem. He overcame all the handicaps and had even taken a white woman, Canadian actress Joanna Shimkus, for his second wife who had given him two beautiful daughters. He was one of the highest paid actors in the world and a recipient of several acting awards both at home and abroad. He had done well and his entire life had measured up to the human values and high moral standards he had set for himself. And he met his death with character.