Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon

495 Pages·2004·3.08 MB·English

by  Aram Goudsouzian

SIDNEY POITIER
Sidney
ARAM GOUDSOUZIAN
Poitier
MAN,
ACTOR,
ICON
The University of North Carolina Press Chapel Hill & London
∫ 2004
The University of North Carolina Press
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Set in Sabon and Castellar types
by Keystone Typesetting, Inc.
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council
on Library Resources.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Goudsouzian, Aram.
Sidney Poitier : man, actor, icon / by Aram Goudsouzian.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 0-8078-2843-2 (alk. paper)
1. Poitier, Sidney. 2. Actors—United States—Biography.
3. African American actors—United States—Biography.
I. Title.
pn2287.p57g68 2004
791.43%028%092—dc22 2003019372
08 07 06 05 04 5 4 3 2 1
In memory of Andy Colligan
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Along with the fight to desegregate the schools, we must
desegregate the entire cultural statement of America; we must
desegregate the minds of the American people. If we merely succeed in
desegregating the school buildings, we may very well find that we have
won the battle and lost the war. Integration begins the day after the
minds of the American people are desegregated.
john oliver killens
The Black Man’s Burden (1965)
Entertainment is not, as we often think, a full-scale flight from
our problems, not a means of forgetting them completely, but rather
a rearrangement of our problems into shapes which tame them, which
disperse them to the margins of our attention.
michael wood
America in the Movies (1975)
We’re all imperfect, and life is simply a perpetual, unending
struggle against those imperfections.
sidney poitier
The Measure of a Man (2000)
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contents
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
part i: poverty and progress
1 Patches (1927–1943) 7
2 Great Migrations (1943–1945) 25
3 Stages (1945–1949) 43
part ii: race man
4 Message Movies (1949–1952) 63
5 Black Lists (1951–1954) 84
6 Threats (1955–1957) 103
7 Noble Savages (1956–1957) 123
part iii: black man’s burden
8 Decisions (1957–1959) 145
9 Burdens (1959–1961) 167
10 Blues (1960–1962) 189
11 Long Journeys (1963–1964) 208
part iv: alone in the penthouse
12 Crossroads (1965–1966) 231
13 Useful Negroes (1966–1967) 253
14 Last Hurrahs (1967–1968) 277
part v: through playing god
15 Exiles (1967–1971) 315
16 Survivors (1972–1978) 337
17 Ghosts (1978–2002) 358
Appendix: Performances by Sidney Poitier 381
Notes 397
Bibliography 447
Index 467
A section of photographs follows p. 296.