American actor and director Sidney Poitier died at age 94 on January 6, 2022. Poitier was the first black actor to be awarded a Best Actor Academy Award in 1964, for his role in "Lillies of the Field". Son of a farmer, the Bahamian-American made his way up through the Hollywood of the 50s and 60s where people of colour were mostly invisible. Sidney Poitier was a fervent civil rights activist involved in many humanitarian activities and considered one of the greatest and most iconic actors of the American movie industry.