10 Essential Sidney Poitier Movies, From ‘Blackboard Jungle’

“No Way Out” (1950)
In his big-screen debut, Sidney Poitier made a memorable impression as a pioneering African American doctor who runs afoul of a racist thug (Richard Widmark) whose brother died in his care.

“Blackboard Jungle” (1955) 
In this melodrama, the primary Hollywood characteristic to incorporate rock songs, Glenn Ford performed a brand new instructor at a troubled inner-city faculty the place Poitier was a music-loving insurgent.

“The Defiant Ones” (1958) 
Poitier starred reverse Tony Curtis in Stanley Kramer’s Oscar-winning drama about two escaped convicts who — since they’re nonetheless chained collectively — reluctantly conform to cooperate regardless of their variations.

“A Raisin in the Sun” (1961)
Reunited with a lot of the forged of the 1960 Broadway manufacturing of Lorraine Hansberry’s play, Poitier performed an formidable younger Chicago man squabbling along with his household over how finest to spend their late father’s insurance coverage cash.
 

“Lilies of the Field” (1963)
Poitier performed a former G.I. who agrees to construct a church for a gaggle of East German nuns within the Arizona desert — after which grew to become the primary African American to win the Oscar for Best Actor for the position.
 

“A Patch of Blue” (1965) 
Poitier’s Gordon Ralfe falls for a poor blind white lady (Elizabeth Hartman) on this drama — which gained an Oscar for Shelley Winters because the lady’s shrewishly racist mom.

“In the Heat of the Night” (1967)
In maybe his signature position, Poitier commanded the display in Norman Jewison’s Best Picture winner as a Philadelphia police detective drawn right into a homicide investigation in Mississippi — at first as a suspect after which as unofficial sleuth.

“Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” (1967)
A supposedly liberal couple performed by Hollywood legends Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are startled to see meet their daughter’s fiancé: a widowed physician performed by Poitier with countless endurance and good will.
 

“To Sir, With Love” (1967)
In his third big-screen hit that yr, Poitier did a task reversal from his “Blackboard Jungle” days — this time going behind the instructor’s desk at an inner-city London faculty.

“Stir Crazy” (1980)
Poitier turned to directing within the ’70s, first on initiatives like “Buck and the Preacher” and “Uptown Saturday Night” the place he additionally starred. But on this comedy hit, the primary by a black director to gross greater than $100 million, he stayed behind the digital camera. Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor play Hollywood wannabes who find yourself in jail after being framed for financial institution theft.