Tag:

Lilies of the Field

Sidney Poitier, First Black Actor To Win Oscar, Longtime Westchester Resident, Dies Sidney Poitier, First Black Actor To Win Oscar, Longtime Westchester Resident, Dies
Sidney Poitier, First Black Actor To Win Oscar, Longtime Westchester Resident, Dies Trailblazing, Sidney Poitier, the first Black actor to win an Oscar, a longtime New York resident has died. Bahamian Prime Minister Phillip Davis made the announcement that Poitier died on Thursday, Jan. 8 at the age of 94. A native of Cat Island in the Bahamas, Davis said: "The whole Bahamas grieves the celebrated life of a great Bahamian."  Poitier, who grew up on a tomato farm and taught himself to read and write, became a resident of Westchester County, moving to Mount Vernon in 1956. He won the Oscar for "Lilies of the Field," in 1963, in which he played a migrant worker wh…