The Best 32 films of Sidney Poitier.
The wonderful Sidney Poitier made his fim debut auspiciously
in the 1950 Joe Mankiewicz drama, No Way Out. At 23 years old, Mr. Poitier showed acting brillliance beyond his years.
This brilliance continued over a 50 year film career. Sid Poitier has always had a quiet dignity and elegance and his performances have been consistently excellent. This list was
a labor of joy and is meant as a tribute to the great Sidney Poitier. Here are 32 of his very best!
in the 1950 Joe Mankiewicz drama, No Way Out. At 23 years old, Mr. Poitier showed acting brillliance beyond his years.
This brilliance continued over a 50 year film career. Sid Poitier has always had a quiet dignity and elegance and his performances have been consistently excellent. This list was
a labor of joy and is meant as a tribute to the great Sidney Poitier. Here are 32 of his very best!
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32 titles
- DirectorNorman JewisonStarsSidney PoitierRod SteigerWarren OatesA black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsSpencer TracySidney PoitierKatharine HepburnA couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her African-American fiancé.
- DirectorRalph NelsonStarsSidney PoitierLilia SkalaLisa MannA travelling handyman becomes the answer to the prayers of nuns who wish to build a chapel in the desert.
- DirectorStanley KramerStarsTony CurtisSidney PoitierCara WilliamsTwo chained-together escaped convicts, White and Black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
- StarsSidney PoitierBurt LancasterRichard KileyA dramatization of the American court case that destroyed the legal validity of racial segregation.
- DirectorDaniel PetrieStarsSidney PoitierClaudia McNeilRuby DeeA substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
- DirectorGuy GreenStarsSidney PoitierShelley WintersElizabeth HartmanA blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life by introducing her to the outside world.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsJohn CassavetesSidney PoitierJack WardenThe growing friendship of two NYC longshoremen is threatened by a notably repellent punk.
- DirectorJames B. HarrisStarsRichard WidmarkSidney PoitierJames MacArthurAn American destroyer Captain is determined to confront a Soviet submarine caught violating territorial waters. Perhaps too determined.
- DirectorMichael Caton-JonesStarsBruce WillisRichard GereSidney PoitierAn imprisoned I.R.A. fighter is freed to help stop a brutal, seemingly "faceless" assassin from completing his next job.
- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsRichard WidmarkLinda DarnellStephen McNallyTwo hoodlum brothers are brought into a hospital for gunshot wounds, and when one of them dies the other accuses their black doctor of murder.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsGlenn FordAnne FrancisLouis CalhernA new English teacher at a violent, unruly inner-city school is determined to do his job, despite resistance from both students and faculty.
- DirectorJames ClavellStarsSidney PoitierJudy GeesonChristian RobertsIdealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
- DirectorSydney PollackStarsSidney PoitierAnne BancroftTelly SavalasCollege volunteer Alan is working alone at the crisis center one evening when he receives a telephone call from suicidal caller Inga Dyson.
- DirectorOtto PremingerRouben MamoulianStarsSidney PoitierDorothy DandridgeSammy Davis Jr.A woman whose past is scorned by nearly everyone around her meets a man who'd love her regardlessly- if only everyone else would allow them to.
- DirectorRoger SpottiswoodeStarsSidney PoitierTom BerengerKirstie AlleyAn F.B.I. Agent teams up with a tracker to pursue a murderer after he vanishes into the mountains and infiltrates a hiking group.
- DirectorDon MedfordStarsSidney PoitierBarbara McNairGerald S. O'LoughlinIn San Francisco, Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs helps a group of idealistic vigilantes expose a drug ring controlled by powerful businessmen.
- DirectorGordon DouglasStarsSidney PoitierMartin LandauBarbara McNairIn San Francisco, a high-priced call girl is murdered and the case is assigned to Police Lieutenant Virgil Tibbs.
- DirectorMartin RittStarsPaul NewmanJoanne WoodwardSidney PoitierDuring the 1960s, two American expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls.
- DirectorZoltan KordaStarsCanada LeeSidney PoitierCharles CarsonIn the back country of South Africa, black minister Stephen Kumalo (Canada Lee) journeys to the city to search for his missing son, only to find his people living in squalor and his son a criminal. Reverend Msimangu (Sidney Poitier) is a young South African clergyman who helps find his missing son-turned-thief and sister-turned-prostitute in the slums of Johannesburg.
- DirectorJoseph SargentStarsSidney PoitierMichael CaineTina LiffordOn June 12, 1964, Nelson Mandela, along with numerous political detainees, was sentenced to life imprisonment in what remains the most sensational treason trial in the history of South Africa. The incarceration of Mandela and other political prisoners on Robben Island would become a symbol of the struggle to end apartheid and win freedom for the black majority in South Africa. On February 2, 1990, President F.W. De Klerk stood before Parliament and announced the legalization of the African National Congress and a host of other banned political organizations. At the same time, he announced that Nelson Mandela, having served twenty-seven years in prison, would be released within seven days. Yet the world, and indeed most South Africans, knew little about how this momentous occasion came to pass. Until now. This movie was filmed in South Africa. Most of the locations are those where the actual events took place, and the dramatized sequences are augmented with newsreel footage to ensure the most accurate portrayal possible of recent historical events.
- DirectorRichard BenjaminStarsSidney PoitierRiver PhoenixRichard JenkinsAn F.B.I. Agent works to uncover an All-American family as Soviet sleeper Agents, and gets caught up in friendship with their unaware son.
- DirectorSidney PoitierStarsSidney PoitierBill CosbyHarry BelafonteAt Madame Zenobia's illegal nightclub, when Steve Jackson and Wardell Franklin get robbed of their wallets containing a winning lottery ticket, they set out to recover it.
- DirectorSidney PoitierJoseph SargentStarsSidney PoitierHarry BelafonteRuby DeeA wagon master and a con-man preacher help freed slaves dogged by cheap-labor agents out West.
- DirectorRalph NelsonStarsJames GarnerSidney PoitierBibi AnderssonIn Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Indian wife, and a housewife abandons her husband in order to rejoin her Apache lover's tribe.
- DirectorRobert Alan AurthurStarsSidney PoitierJoanna ShimkusAl Freeman Jr.A gang of black militants plots to rob a factory to finance their "revolutionary struggle".
- DirectorGeorge StevensJean NegulescoStarsMax von SydowDorothy McGuireCharlton HestonAn all-star, large scale epic movie that chronicles the life and ministry of Jesus Christ.
- DirectorRichard BrooksStarsRock HudsonDana WynterWendy HillerIn British Colonial Kenya during the Mau Mau uprising, Peter and Kimani, who grew up together, find themselves on the opposite sides.
- DirectorHall BartlettStarsAlan LaddSidney PoitierJames DarrenDuring the Korean War, a platoon leader dies, leaving his inexperienced black Sergeant in charge of his squad of belligerent and racist white men.
- DirectorHubert CornfieldStarsSidney PoitierBobby DarinPeter FalkA black prison psychiatrist is assigned the distasteful task of helping a paranoid American Nazi charged with sedition.
- DirectorPhil Alden RobinsonStarsRobert RedfordDan AykroydSidney PoitierA security pro finds his past returning to haunt him when he and his unique team are tasked with retrieving a particularly important item.
- DirectorBudd BoetticherStarsJeff ChandlerAlex NicolCharles DrakeStory of the military truck drivers who kept the Allied armies supplied in Europe during World War II.