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Possibly no one man had such a powerful effect on Hollywood as Sidney Poitier. The first black leading man, he blazed a trail that opened up the American movie industry to black actors. Born in Miami, but raised in the Bahamas, Poitier grew up in poverty, before coming to America as a teenager, taking a series of bad jobs and joining the army. Having joined the American Negro Theatre and appeared on Broadway in Anna Lucasta in 1948, he got his screen break in No Way Out in 1950 as a hospital intern who deals with racist punks. Poitier then appeared in several films in the lead role, at a time when America was racially divided, and won an Oscar for his performance in Lilies Of The Field in 1963. His defining role came as the police detective Virgil Tibbs in In The Heat Of The Night alongside Rod Steiger's redneck cop. Poitier's achievements were recognised at the Oscars in 2002, where Denzel Washington presented him with a Life-Time Achievement Award.
