Sidney Poitier was born in Miami, Florida and raised in the Caribbean until he was 15. He was the last of seven children born to poor tomato farmers. By age 13 he was working full time to help support his family.
At 16 he arrived in New York with $3.00 in his pocket. He served in the army for a little over a year, then worked as a dishwasher. He was looking for a second job when he stumbled into an open audition. Without any training he was humiliated off the stage, but he returned six months later and auditioned for the American Negro Theater.
No Way Out was his first film and he went on to star in over 40 more films. He was the third Negro Academy Award Winner, and in 1963 he won the Oscar for Best Actor in the movie Lilies in the Field.
Dr. Martin Luther King paid tribute to Sidney by saying, "He is a man of great depth, a man of great social concern, a man who is dedicated to human rights and freedom. Here is a man who, in the words we so often hear now, is a soul brother."
