“Beautiful,” “brilliant,” “grace” and “elegance” are just a few of the words used by those who paid tribute Friday to the late Sidney Poitier, one of the greatest actors of the past century.
Poitier, who died Thursday at the age of 94, blazed trails as a Black actor who rose to fame during a time when there were few starring roles offered to African Americans. He set a standard for those who came after him.
“No words can describe how your work radically shifted my life,” Academy Award-winning actress Viola Davis posted on her verified Instagram account. “The dignity, normalcy, strength, excellence and sheer electricity you brought to your roles showed us that we, as Black folks, mattered!!!”
Hollywood mogul Tyler Perry noted on Facebook that “Around this time last year Cicely Tyson was releasing her book and promoting it. I had no idea she would pass away shortly thereafter.”
“Now, to wake up this morning to a call that Sidney Poitier has passed away… all I can tell you is that my heart broke in another place,” Perry wrote. “The grace and class that this man has shown throughout his entire life, the example he set for me, not only as a black man but as a human being will never be forgotten.”
Said Whoopi Goldberg on Twitter, “He showed us how to reach for the stars.”
If you wanted the sky i would write across the sky in letters that would soar a thousand feet high..
— Whoopi Goldberg (@WhoopiGoldberg) January 7, 2022
To Sir… with Love
Sir Sidney Poitier R.I.P.
He showed us how to reach for the stars
Activist Bernice King, daughter of civil rights icon Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., paid homage to Poitier’s work fighting for equality by tweeting a photo of the actor she labelled as being from the “Poor People’s Campaign, Resurrection City, Washington, D.C., May 1968.”
“Powerful beyond the stage and screen,” she tweeted.
Sidney Poitier
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) January 7, 2022
Poor People’s Campaign, Resurrection City, Washington, D.C., May 1968
Powerful beyond the stage and screen. pic.twitter.com/hEKRxGvoM2
Others in the activism community also took to social media to pay homage.
“This beautiful, brilliant, talented Black man,” tweeted Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, along with a photo of Poitier. “Rest in Peace and Power.”
This beautiful, brilliant, talented Black man. Rest in Peace and Power #SidneyPoitier pic.twitter.com/RD3zhNOeX7
— Sherrilyn Ifill (@Sifill_LDF) January 7, 2022
.
Latest Stories
- GALARY: Best pictures from Black Stars training at Accra Sports Stadium on Monday
15 mins - Female farmers less likely to leave crop residues to decompose – KNUST research
29 mins - Drivers in Kumasi speed on weekends – Research reveals
59 mins - Implement existing laws to protect consumer – CUTS urges uegulators
1 hour - Ayorkor Botchwey cuts sod for construction of Foreign Ministry annex
1 hour - NAB names Lora Dennis as 2023 Digital Leadership Award honoree
2 hours - Bad Bunny sued for $40m by ex-girlfriend
2 hours - Go to school, don’t wait to get everything on your prospectus – Education Minister to SHS freshers
2 hours - ‘Western Togoland’: 5 secessionists handed 5 years in jail each
2 hours - Trading of government bonds falls by 21.09% to ¢119.05m
2 hours - Ecobank Ghana named Best Trade Finance Provider by Global Finance Magazine
2 hours - Court revokes bail for estate developer, two others
2 hours - DDEP: Financial institutions regulators should protect customers, not government – Dan Seddoh
3 hours - Huawei’s FinTech 2.0 to support Ghana’s Mobile Money, deepen financial inclusion
3 hours - Fella Makafui reacts after Twitter user accuses her of ‘sleeping’ with Medikal’s ex-manager
3 hours