He was a legend. He was a pioneer. Sidney Poitier, who died this week at age 94, was a ground-breaking performer … actually in a category all his personal. In 2013, "Sunday Morning" requested Lesley Stahl to speak with the Oscar-winning actor. We may consider no higher remembrance than their dialog: Sidney Poitier's life has been a collection of "firsts." In 1959, he was the primary Black man nominated for an Oscar as Finest Actor for his position of an escaped convict alongside Tony Curtis in "The Defiant Ones." He was the primary Black man to kiss a White lady in a film, 1965's "A Patch of Blue." And when he received the very best actor Oscar in 1964, he was not solely the primary Black actor to take action, he remained the one one till 2002. After starring in additional than 50 motion pictures, Poitier mentioned his profession selections have been much less about being "first" and extra concerning the picture of his characters. He wouldn't, he advised CBS Information correspondent Lesley Stahl, play somebody who was immoral or merciless. "For those who undergo my profession, you may discover that I did not. I did not ever." His typical character was dignified, proud and moral. Take Virgil Tibbs, a Philadelphia murder detective who reluctantly helps a small-town police chief in Mississippi (performed by Rod Steiger) resolve a homicide, in 1967's "Within the Warmth of the Evening." However earlier than signing on to play the position, Poitier requested the film studio for a significant script change to 1 scene during which his character is slapped: "I mentioned, 'If he slaps me, I'll slap him again. You'll placed on paper that the studio agrees that the movie can be proven nowhere on this planet, with me standing there taking the slap.'" "God, you had this written into the contract?" Stahl mentioned. "That is proper," he replied. "And naturally, it's a kind of nice, nice moments in all of movie, all of movie, while you slap him again." "Sure, I knew that I'd have been insulting each Black particular person on this planet [if I hadn't]," Poitier mentioned. The youngest of seven youngsters, Sidney Poitier was born three months untimely whereas his Bahamian mother and father have been in Miami to promote tomatoes. Unsure whether or not he would survive, his dad bought a tiny casket, whereas his mom consulted a palm reader ... "The woman took her hand and began talking to my mom, and she or he mentioned: 'Don't fret about your son. He'll survive,'" Poitier recalled. "'He'll stroll with kings.'" Poitier lived within the Bahamas till the age of 15, when his mother and father – afraid their son was on a path to delinquency – despatched him again to Miami to dwell together with his older brother. However at 16, Poitier left for New York, the place he tried his hand at appearing, despite the fact that he'd had solely two years of education. "You could not learn, you had a really thick Bahamian accent, and also you determine to attempt to turn into an actor? Why did you go that route? It form of is not sensible," mentioned Stahl. "I had no approach of figuring out that there's a insanity to what I am attempting to do," he mentioned. After a disastrous audition with the American Negro Theater, the place Poitier may barely learn the script, an act of kindness at his job as a dishwasher modified his life. "One of many waiters, a Jewish man, aged man. I had a newspaper, and he walked over to me, and he checked out me and he mentioned, 'What's new within the paper?' And I appeared up at this man and I mentioned to him, 'I am unable to let you know what's within the paper, as a result of I am unable to learn very effectively.' He mentioned, 'Let me ask you one thing, would you want me to learn with you?' I mentioned to him, 'Sure, if you happen to like.' "Now let me let you know one thing: Each night time … each night time, the place is closed, everybody's gone, and he sat there with me, week after week after week. I discovered so much. Quite a bit. "After which, issues started to occur." Like touchdown an appearing apprenticeship with the exact same theater firm that had laughed him out of his audition. There, Poitier discovered alongside actors like Ruby Dee, Ossie Davis and Harry Belafonte. After which in 1950, he was solid in his first starring position in a film "No Means Out," as a health care provider dealing with overt racism from a prisoner performed by Richard Widmark. From the start of his profession, Poitier insisted that he painting males who have been upright, well-educated, and infrequently stronger of character than the White individuals round him. "I didn't go into the movie enterprise to be symbolized as another person's imaginative and prescient of me," Poitier mentioned. "If the display doesn't make room for me within the construction of their screenplay, I might step again. I could not do it. I simply could not do it." By 1967, Poitier was among the many Prime 10 Hollywood moneymakers, and a Prime 10 main man. In that one 12 months alone, he starred in "To Sir, With Love"; the Oscar-winning "Within the Warmth of the Evening"; and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. However that 12 months he started to face criticism from some within the African American group, who labeled him an "Uncle Tom" for the "purity" of his roles. "And it did not harm you?" requested Stahl. "Harm me for what?" he replied. "I simply merely say, 'I dwell by a sure code.' I've to have a certain quantity of decency in my behavioral sample. I've to have that." Within the Seventies, Poitier turned to directing. And surprisingly, the actor who so usually personified class, grace and earnestness, directed comedies with slapstick, together with "Uptown Saturday Evening" and "Stir Loopy." Within the Nineteen Eighties, he turned to writing books, producing three autobiographies. And when Stahl met with Poitier, the then-86-year-old had simply written a novel, "Montaro Caine." "I used to be not aspiring to make an impression," he defined. "I used to be discovering launch for myself inside myself. I used to be on the lookout for who I'm at this level in my life." "Did you discover out?" Stahl requested. "Considerably, sure." "Who're you?" "I am a very good particular person," Poitier smiled. 
This story was initially broadcast on Could 12, 2013.
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Story produced by Kay Lim. Editor: Remington Korper.
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