eMoviePoster.com
Auction History Result 5x096 SIDNEY POITIER 33 from 7.5x9.5 to 8x10 stills '60s-70s portraits of the great actor! Date Sold 3/27/2016 Sold For: Login or Register to see sold price. 33 Original Vintage Theatrical (measure from 7 1/2" x 9 1/2" [19 x 24 cm] to 8" x 10" [20 x 25 cm]) Movie Stills (Learn More) Sidney Poitier was born in Miami, Florida in 1927, but his parents were Bahamians who were just visiting. He grew up very poor, and was sent by his parents to Miami when he was 15 to live with his older brother. He moved to New York's Harlem, and had menial jobs and he decided to become an actor. He joined the American Negro Theater and soon got a major role in a Broadway show. He made his real film debut in 1950 in No Way Out, which revolved around a white bigot refusing to be treated by a black doctor. He also stood out in the adaptation of Alan Paton's fine book, Cry, the Beloved Country, where he played a young South African minister. But in the racially divided U.S. of the 1950s, he could not play leading roles in major studio productions, for this super handsome man would surely be expected to be the romantic lead, and no studio at that time would have made a major production with two African Americans in the lead roles, and of course there was no way they would have a leading couple that was interracial! So Poitier had to take what he could (although he consistently refused to take any part that was in any way demeaning to black people), including playing a teenage high school student in Blackboard Jungle in 1955, even though he was 27 years old! He spent the rest of the 1950s in roles similar to what he had played before. In 1958, he was much noticed in Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), where he is a convict on the run chained to bigoted Tony Curtis (it has been said that Kramer wanted Robert Mitchum for Curtis' role, but that Mitchum refused because he did not believe the basic premise, that in the South at that time a white man would be chained to a black man, and that is a shame because I believe Mitchum was far better suited to the role than Curtis). In 1959, he played the crippled Porgy in Otto Preminger's adaptation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess, opposite Dorothy Dandridge as Bess and Sammy Davis Jr. as Sportin' Life, still not a true romantic leading role. He starred in the Broadway production of A Raisin in the Sun, and in the movie version in 1961. In 1963, he starred as Homer Smith in Ralph Nelson's wonderful Lilies of the Field, and if you have never seen this uplifting movie, I highly recommend you do! Poitier won the Best Actor Oscar, the first African American lead actor or actress to do so. But Poitier STILL could not be cast as a romantic lead! In 1967, he starred as Mark Thackeray in James Clavell's superb To Sir, with Love (another must-see!), and had the main teacher been white, he would surely have had a romance with the beautiful single teacher played by Suzy Kendall, but there was only the slightest hint of romance. Also in 1967, he starred as Virgil Tibbs in In the Heat of the Night opposite Rod Steiger's bigoted Southern sheriff, and this movie did much to break down the racial stereotypes so prevalent in the U.S. at this time. Some Americans were outraged that a black man was portrayed as smarter and better than the lead white sheriff, but no doubt many more had their eyes opened as to just how stupid racial prejudice is! Also in 1967, he starred in Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and it was a ground breaking movie in its day in that he FINALLY got to have a lead romantic role, and an interracial romance, but the romance was so sanitized and the entire movie was so noble and preachy that it does not hold up well. Poitier spent most of the 1970s directing and starring in comedies with mostly African American casts, and in some movies where he reprised his role as Virgil Tibbs. It was his ground breaking roles in the 1960s that paved the way for the explosion of black actors in mainstream movies and on TV in the 1970s. I highly recommend all of the movies mentioned above! He passed away in 2022 at the age of 94. You can learn much more about Sidney Poitier by visiting the following link! Against the Grain: Black Film Pioneers: Part I: Sidney Poitier Important Added Info: SUPER IMPORTANT! THOUGH ONLY EIGHT OF THE STILLS ARE PICTURED, THE HIGH BIDDER ON THIS LOT WILL RECEIVE 33 STILLS FROM THIS MOVIE (but realize that on some of these lots with 9 or more stills there may be a few duplicates, mostly on post-1960 lots)! We realize there is an element of gambling to this, but we made only a small effort to find the best stills in these lots, and, if you have any willingness to gamble at all, you may find that you get some great stills that were not pictured! Please do NOT bid on this lot unless you can accept that you are only seeing eight of the stills. Condition: good to very good. One or more of the stills has been trimmed. The trimming can either be seen in our super-sized image, or if not, then please see our measurement range above to get a sense of the amount of trimming (in some cases the trimming is very minimal and the stills measure very close to 8" x 10", and in those cases there will not be a range of measurements). One of the stills has been both trimmed as well as laminated (not pictured). Learn More about condition grades 
Postal Mailing Address:
Bruce Hershenson, P.O. Box 874, West Plains, MO 65775. (For our UPS or FedEx address, click here) phone: +1 417 256-9616 fax: +1 417 257-6948 E-mail: Contact Us Hours of Operation: Monday - Friday 8:30 AM - 12:00 PM & 1:00 PM - 5:00 PM (CST) |
|||||||||||||
