There's something I had not known about these two great actors. Both Sidney Poitier and Cicely Tyson were basically immigrants to the United States. Poitier moved as a child to Florida while Tyson's parents came to New York before she was born. That's part of why I decided to write about them--because immigration is a strength of the United States. With modern restrictions, it's unlikely they could have come in--neither family had money. Tyson's dad was a painter while Poitier's was a cab driver...no millions to buy their way in.

Rather than rewrite the info in it, I think the obituary for Ms. Tyson provided by the Economist is a fascinating look into her childhood especially. It is just gobsmacking to me that the behavior her mom faced trying to find work as a maid was not just tolerated but expected.

Just as weird, while I knew who she was and understood her excellence as an actor, I think the only two roles I ever saw her in were the 1977 mini-series 'Roots' and the 1990s TV show 'Sweet Justice'. I don't think this is a commentary on anything other than personal preference in terms of film or TV. Tyson's 'prime' was before I was born.

Or is that rationalizing? It may be a commentary on how Hollywood treats women as they age. Starring roles for women over 65 are rare and pay is never par with male stars--think about it...people like Stallone, Bruce Willis, Eastwood, and Schwarzenegger all have had big movies after the age of 60. Action movies. What juicy roles go to women?

Poitier's story is a bit different. He never became a US citizen. He remained Bahaman. He was also an avowed 'leftist' and was blacklisted for several years in the 1950s because of his convictions. By the time McCarthyism passed, Poitier had eliminated his Caribbean accent and honed his theater skills. He also was fully committed to making his career make a difference for social justice (in the good, proper sense of the term, not the term that's been dragged through social media mud circa 2016-2022). His first starring role saw him as a doctor treating a white bigot (No Way Out...not to be confused with the Costner film 35 years later). From here, he did Cry, The Beloved Country, the first major movie with black actors in all of the primary roles--confronting the issue of apartheid in South Africa and what that did to white/black relationships.

This gave Poitier a chance to star in The Blackboard Jungle--a movie where his skin color did not matter. It gave him a different opportunity--a movie called Edge of the City which was dominated by two characters, a black man and white man and the issues/pressures they faced being friends (Poitier and John Cassavetes). The movie led to Poitier's string of critical successes ranging from The Defiant Ones through In the Heat of the Night.

Of Poitier, several black actors noted Poitier's importance in carrying movies. Before him, black men could only have parts of movies easily removed to avoid offending 'proper southern sensibilities' (white racism, obviously), but with Poitier as one of the main characters--that became impossible. Poitier's excellence FORCED southern theaters to show movies featuring blacks--and he was so good, there was no way to keep him away from starring roles.

It wasn't just that he starred, no, it mattered because Poitier was always in a leadership-type of position. In Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, just like No Way Out, he's a doctor. In In the Heat of the Night and They Call Me Mr. Tibbs, he's a police detective.

The funny thing--Poitier was criticized within the black community at large for only playing 'noble', upstanding roles--for always being a good guy. Isn't that wild? It is especially if you consider the lack of contemporary criticism of a different movie star who refused to play bad guys. That guy was held up as a role model. His name? John Wayne. (Wayne was nowhere near the actor Poitier was--but from the 1940s-1970s, there wasn't really a bigger movie star.)

Unlike Tyson's films and shows, I've seen most of the ones with Poitier, the 'big ones' at least--Heat/Tibbs, Guess Who, and even his comedy collaboration with Bill Cosby (Uptown Saturday Night)

But as I work on "Free at Last", my Foundation's boardgame on the 1960s Civil Rights Movement, I think Tyson and Poitier have an importance beyond their acting chops. At a key moment in American history, a point where blacks wanted equality and were being oppressed (including with violence)by southern whites who claimed blacks were inferior--here you had these two on stages and on the big screen, proving those claims a lie because there was no denying their skills or significance to the arts. And that's subtle--AND important. The Civil Rights Movement wasn't about being loud or violent--it was about steady pressure, it was about patience*--about confronting every lie with truth. These two did that. Hopefully that gets mentioned when people refer to their legacies rather than limiting discussion to just their film roles.

*It isn't just M.L. King who preached non-violence. One of the first groups to orchestrate direct action across the South was SNCC: the Student Non-Violent Coordination Committee. The refusal to meet violence and brutality with violence is a critical aspect of the Civil Rights era.

 This free site is ad-supported. Learn more
​