Deaths 2022

Deaths 2021

Deaths 2020

Deaths 2019

Deaths 2018

Deaths 2017

Deaths 2016

Deaths 2015

Deaths 2014

Deaths 2013

Deaths 2012

Deaths 2011

Deaths 2010

Deaths 2009


Full list by date of death

(Sir) Sidney Poitier

Actor

Born - 20 February 1927, Miami, Florida, USA
Died - 7 January 2022

Distinguished, imposingly good-looking Bahamian-American actor - the first black performer to attract international audiences as a leading man, and the first to win the Best Actor Academy Award. As an actor, he was at his most interesting being less than saintly, although he always brought dignity to his portrayals of black people on screen. After appearing as an extra in Sepia Cinderella (1947) and making the military training film From Whence Cometh My Help (1949), he was pitched straight into leading Hollywood roles: No Way Out (1950), Cry, the Beloved Country (1951), Red Ball Express (1952), Go Man Go (1954), Blackboard Jungle (1955), A Man is 10 Feet Tall (1956), Something of Value (1957), The Defiant Ones (1958), Porgy and Bess (1959), All the Young Men (1960), Paris Blues (1961), Pressure Point (1962), Lilies of the Field (1963), The Bedford Incident (1965), To Sir, With Love (1966), Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), In the Heat of the Night (1967), For Love of Ivy (1968), The Lost Man (1969), They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! (1970), The Organization (1971), Buck and the Preacher (1972), The Wilby Conspiracy (1974), A Piece of the Action (1977), Little Nikita/The Sleepers (1987), Deadly Pursuit (1988), Sneakers (1992), The Jackal (1997) and the TV movie The Last Brickmaker in America (2001), his final work. He also directed a number of films, from Buck and the Preacher, to Ghost Dad in 1990. Twice married, he had six children, all girls; his second wife, actress Joanna Shimkus, survives him. He died from heart failure.