Sidney Poitier

TCM sets tributes to Poitier and to MLK Day

A 24-hour Sidney Poitier tribute is coming to Turner Classic Movies next month.
And we won’t have to wait for all of it: “The Defiant Ones” (1958) airs at 11 a.m. ET Monday (Jan. 17), in a Martin Luther King Day marathon … and again at 10 p.m. ET Feb. 19, in the Poitier tribute, which includes the Oscar-winning “In the Heat of the Night” (shown here with Poitier and Rod Steiger).
“Defiant Ones” brought raves for Poitier, who became the first Black nominee for the best-actor Academy Award. Five years later, with “Lilies in the Field,” he became the first Black winner.
He was never nominated again, but did win a lifetime Oscar in 2002. He also received lifetime awards from the Golden Globes, the Kennedy Center, the American Film Institute and the Screen Actors Guild. Read more…