{"id":1201825,"date":"2022-01-09T13:04:27","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T18:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1201825"},"modified":"2022-01-09T13:04:38","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T18:04:38","slug":"sidney-poitier-a-trailblazing-life-in-his-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/sidney-poitier-a-trailblazing-life-in-his-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Sidney Poitier: A Trailblazing Life in His Own Words"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsidney-poitier-a-trailblazing-life-in-his-own-words%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1201825&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/obit-sidney-poitier-actor-sidney-poitier-poses-portrait-beverly-hills-calif-june-2008-poitier-groundbr-e1641739252483-640x335-1.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" alt=\"image\" \/><\/div>\n<p class=\"subheading\">NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 As a trailblazing actor to generations of Black performers in Hollywood, Sidney Poitier often spoke about his larger off-screen role.<\/p>\n<p>Poitier, <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/sidney-poitier-dead-214e66b7e52909bdc64465e9ff4a1339\">who died Thursday at the age of 94<\/a>, entered the film industry at a time when portrayals of African Americans were generally stereotypical. But Poitier, who refused to play such caricatures, emerged as a matinee idol, an Oscar-winning actor and one of the most potent and graceful screen presences of his time, paving the way for countless who followed him.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"D-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B1\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"gmxrevmore\" class=\"H\"><\/figure>\n<p>In interviews and in his 2000 autobiography, \u201cThe Measure of a Man,\u201d Poitier spoke and wrote about the hardships, responsibilities and importance of his historic ascent in Hollywood. Here are excerpts of Poitier in his own words through the years.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere was almost no frame of reference for us except as stereotypical, one-dimensional characters. \u2026 Not only was I not going to do that, but I had in mind what was expected of me \u2014 not just what other Blacks expected but what my mother and father expected. And what I expected of myself. \u2026 To walk through my life as my own man.\u201d \u2014 From a 2000 interview with Oprah Winfrey.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"M-ROS-B2\" class=\"a8d\"><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cOK listen, you think I\u2019m so inconsequential? Then try this on for size. All those who see unworthiness when they look at me and are given thereby to denying me value \u2013 to you I say, I\u2019m not talking about being AS GOOD as you. I hereby declare myself BETTER than you.\u201d \u2014 From his memoir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI felt very much as if I were representing 15, 18 million people with every move I made.\u201d \u2014 From his memoir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a choice, a clear choice. If the fabric of the society were different, I would scream to high heaven to play villains and to deal with different images of Negro life that would be more dimensional. But I\u2019ll be damned if I do that at this stage of the game.\u201d \u2014 On playing heroic, altruistic characters, from a 1967 interview.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can tell you what I think the flak was about. For a long time, I got all the jobs \u2014 one picture after another after another. And the roles I played were very unlike the average Black person in America at the time. The guy always had a suit, a tie, a briefcase! He was a doctor, lawyer, police detective. Middle-class. The characters weren\u2019t reflective of the diversity of Black life. I don\u2019t know that I wouldn\u2019t have had resentments myself, had I been an actor on the outside looking in.\u201d \u2014 On criticism of his on-screen persona, from a 1995 interview with the Washington Post.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the original script, I looked at him with great disdain and, wrapped in my strong ideals, walked out,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThat could have happened with another actor playing the part, but it couldn\u2019t happen with me.\u201d \u2014 On returning a white man\u2019s slap in 1967\u2019s \u201cIn the Heat of the Night,\u201d from his memoir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was happy for me, but I was also happy for the \u2018folks.\u2019 We Black people had done it. We were capable. We forget sometimes, having to persevere against unspeakable odds, that we are capable of infinitely more than the culture is yet willing to credit to our account.\u201d \u2014 On becoming the first Black actor to win an Oscar in 1964, from his memoir.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was part of an influence that could be called paving the way. But I was only a part of it. I was selected almost by history itself. Most of my career unfolded in the 1960s, which was one of the periods in American history with certain attitudes toward minorities that stayed in vogue. I didn\u2019t understand the elements swirling around. I was a young actor with some talent, an enormous curiosity, a certain kind of appeal. You wrap all that together and you have a potent mix.\u201d \u2014 From a 1992 interview with the Times of London.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose of us that go before you glance back with satisfaction and leave you with a simple trust. Be true to yourselves and be useful to the journey.\u201d \u2014 Accepting the AFI Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 As a trailblazing actor to generations of Black performers in Hollywood, Sidney Poitier often spoke about his larger off-screen role. Poitier, who died Thursday at the &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1201825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1201825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1201825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1201825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1201825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1201825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}