Sidney Poitier, Best Actor, Lilies of the Field (1963)
Over two decades later, Sidney Poitier joined McDaniel when he became the second black person to win an Academy Award for his Best Actor performance as Homer Smith in
Lilies of the Field. In the film, Poitier plays a construction worker whom a group of nuns believe has been sent by God to build them a chapel.
Poitier’s screen presence in Lilies and other films, including
To Sir, With Love and
Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, marked a departure from degrading depictions of blacks that had pervaded cinema until then.
[Sidney Poitier, Photo via]