:16:00
He started out as a lawyer
and is terrified of libel. I'm not.
:16:06
Sidney Poitier.
:16:08
The future Jackie Robinson of films was
born 24th of February 1927 in Miami
:16:15
during a visit his parents made to Florida.
:16:17
(man) Legally?
:16:19
To sell tomatoes
they had grown in the Bahamas.
:16:22
He grew up on Cat lsland so poor they
didn't even own dirt, he has said.
:16:27
Neglected by his family, my father would
sit on the shore, and, as he's told me:
:16:32
"conjure up the worlds that were on
the other side, and what I'd do in them."
:16:37
He arrived in New York City from
the Bahamas in the winter of 1943
:16:41
at the age of 15 and a half, and lived
in the pay toilet of the bus station
:16:45
across from the old Madison
Square Garden at 50th and 8th Avenue.
:16:49
He moved to the roof of the Brill Building,
commonly known as Tin Pan Alley,
:16:53
washed dishes at the Turf Restaurant
for $4 and 11 cents a night.
:16:58
He taught himself to read
by reading the newspaper.
:17:02
In the black newspaper, the theatre page
was opposite the want-ad page.
:17:06
Among his 42 films are:
:17:10
No Way Out, 1950, Cry, the Beloved
Country, 1952, Blackboard Jungle, 1955,
:17:15
The Defiant Ones, 1958, A Raisin in
the Sun, 1961, Lilies of the Field, 1963,
:17:20
In the Heat of the Night, 1967, To Sir,
with Love, 1967, Shoot to Kill, 1988,
:17:26
and, of course...
:17:27
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner!
:17:31
He won the Oscar for Lilies of the Field,
and was twice named top box-office star.
:17:36
My father made no films from 1977 to
1987, but worked as director and author.
:17:43
Dad said to me once:
:17:45
"I still don't fully understand
:17:48
how all this came about
in the sequence it came about."
:17:53
(someone claps)