Sidney Poitier: Man, Actor, Icon (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Sidney Poitier would stand tall, six feet and two inches..." (more)
Key Phrases: uncited article, telephone interview with the author, black sacrifice, New York, Sidney Poitier, The Defiant Ones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Poitier has been revered as the first black superstar and criticized for his saintly, sexless and sentimentalized screen image. In this intriguing biography, Goudsouzian, a Hamilton College history professor, thoughtfully depicts the actor's efforts to handle both praise and damnation. Poitier's is a rags-to-riches story: working as a butcher's assistant and construction worker, he learned to speak properly by listening to radio news reporters. Goudsouzian astutely notes that Poitier's dynamic performance in Joseph Mankiewicz's No Way Out was compromised by studio insistence that his mannerisms never suggest the "slightest animal urge." The true, full-blooded Poitier burst forth in 1955's The Blackboard Jungle, and he won a 1963 Best Actor Oscar for Lilies of the Field. But details of Poitier's triumphs never soften the book's hard-hitting, political tone. One memorable passage tells of Poitier's efforts to secure a hotel room in 1956 in Nairobi. He was turned away until the hotel manager discovered Poitier's Something of Value salary was $30,000 and commented, "anyone who makes thirty thousand dollars for three months work is not black." Goudsouzian covers Poiter's romances with model/dancer Juanita Hardy, actress/singers Diahann Carroll and Eartha Kitt and actress Joanna Shimkus. Goudsouzian understands the dynamics behind Poitier's pictures, and carefully analyzes Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, A Patch of Blue and To Sir, with Love. Intense anecdotes highlighting Poitier's temper, occasional womanizing and insecurities keep him from appearing as a distant icon. The story loses steam in its final passages, but ends on a high note when Poitier admits, "I set out to prove to myself that I was capable of moving a mountain."
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From The Washington Post

In Aram Goudsouzian's restrained, capable biography of Hollywood icon Sidney Poitier, he doesn't peel away the emotional or psychological layers of the African-American screen star. Instead he tracks the highs and lows of a pioneering career.

Goudsouzian, a history professor at Hamilton College, respects, even admires Poitier. The author's introduction sets the book's reverential tone: "If Sidney Poitier had an acting trademark, it was the cool boil. In the movies, when injustice drove him to the brink, he became a pot of outrage on the verge of bubbling over. His eyes would blaze. His mahogany skin would tighten. His words would gush out in spasms of angry eloquence, carefully measured by grim, simmering pauses."

Poitier, one of seven children, was born in Miami on Feb. 27, 1927. He was raised in the Bahamas, however, where his father struggled to earn a living as a tomato farmer. In his coverage of Poitier's early years, Goudsouzian stresses the actor's modest circumstances and the crime and illiteracy of the neglected underclass to which he belonged. At the same time, he attempts to place Poitier's coming-of-age in a larger social and historical context. Poitier's life, he suggests, parallels the rise of contemporary America as a cultural, political power.

In January 1943, Poitier left for Miami with his parents' reluctant blessing. Chafing under its rigid Jim Crow laws, he quickly found the deep South was not to his liking. When spring arrived the 16-year-old set out for New York City, where he took on a series of jobs, including dishwasher, longshoreman, butcher's assistant, porter, construction worker, salad washer, drugstore clerk and unhappy soldier. In 1945 he decided to take a stab at acting. He joined the American Negro Theatre, where he gained valuable stage experience while learning to eliminate his West Indian accent. Intent on transforming himself, Poitier practiced constantly, mimicking the voices he heard on the radio. He had begun to audition for Broadway productions when he got the opportunity to do a Hollywood screen test. In five short years the youthful immigrant who slept on rooftops had matured into a stylish, purposeful sophisticate determined to bring a new image of Negroes to the silver screen.

Hollywood needed Poitier, who arrived there in 1949, when studios were still reeling from complaints lodged by civil rights groups, who accused filmmakers of perpetuating stereotypical images of blacks. The timing was right for Poitier, whom studio executives cast as an idealistic young doctor caught in racial mayhem in "No Way Out" (1950). By 1957, he had become a symbol of racial integration and equality for black fans and some white moviegoers as well, capitalizing on an untarnished public image in such films as "Cry, the Beloved Country" (1952), "Blackboard Jungle" (1955) and "The Defiant Ones" (1958), for which he received an Oscar nomination.

Having survived the red scare a few years earlier, Poitier entered the '60s determined to steer clear of any political or cultural organizations that might threaten his carefully constructed persona. But his caution worked against him. In contrast to the decade's turbulent racial protests and controversial figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X and Huey Newton, Poitier came off as the perennial well-mannered, "colorless Negro." He earned an Oscar for "Lilies of the Field" in 1963, but by the end of the decade black audiences had abandoned him for more volatile personalities such as former football superstar Jim Brown. Poitier's decline in popularity led to bouts of depression, self-doubt, career fatigue and personal crises.

When Poitier tried to portray an angry, militant black man in a couple of vehicles in the late '60s and early '70s, jaded black audiences refused to accept him, preferring to fill the seats for Brown, Isaac Hayes, Ron O'Neal and Richard Roundtree. He responded by limiting himself to sporadic acting roles and focusing on directing such movies as "Buck and the Preacher" (1972), "Uptown Saturday Night" (1974) and "Stir Crazy" (1980).

Goudsouzian frames Poitier as a man of his times, weighing the actor's compromises and triumphs equally. He does not traffic in sleaze or unsubstantiated rumors, a refreshing rarity where celebrity journalism is concerned. But limited access to his subject hampers his approach. Aside from "sporadic" phone conversations with Poitier, Goudsouzian relies on secondary materials such as newspaper and magazine articles, items from gossip columns and studio press releases. The result is a professionally competent clip job that could have benefited from interviews with Poitier's friends, associates and even rivals.

Still, Poitier himself might have little quarrel with Goudsouzian's effort. The book's introduction includes a 1967 quote from the actor that seems appropriate to consider here. "I am artist, man, American, contemporary," he said. "I am an awful lot of things, so I wish you would pay me the respect due." In straightforward, unadorned prose, Aram Goudsouzian has done just that.

Reviewed by Robert Fleming

Copyright 2004, The Washington Post Co. All Rights Reserved.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; First Edition edition (December 3, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807828432
• ISBN-13: 978-0807828434
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #767,869 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Don't stop at the autobiography . . ., January 26, 2007

By	John B. Hoffman "UncleThelma" (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Always suspicious of autobiographies, I picked up a copy of "Man, Actor, Icon" for a historian's take on this legend of the Silver Screen. And this book certainly does not disappoint. I strongly and sincerely recommend Dr. Goudsouzian's book for people who truly aspire to understand Sidney Poitier's place in history.

This work provides its readers with an eloquent and even-handed record of the life and times of its subject. Goudsouzian's work effectively sketches Poitier's place in a broader historical context - a history of African Americans, of film, of race, of tolerance and of America as a whole. I applaud the author for so eloquently piecing together the life and times of such a notoriously private individual. To see the movies is one thing. To read the autobiography is another. But to actually appreciate what this man has meant, what he endured and the legacy that he has created, one needs an accurate idea of the historical settings and prevailing attitudes that put Poitier's actions and accomplishments in the proper context. Goudsouzian delivers on all counts.

Many thanks to Oprah for bringing much-deserved attention to one of America's more unheralded icons. To really appreciate the man behind the screen, "The Measure of a Man" is a wonderful start. But to truly grasp how such an influential figure was rejected, lauded, embraced, used and again overlooked - all in a single lifetime - this book will provide you with all you need to form your own opinion of the measure of this man, this Sidney Poitier.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A detailed and insightful portrait of the man, February 3, 2007

By	P. J. Shapiro (Baltimore, MD) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Those who came of age after Poitier had receded from the spotlight (such as me) would do well to read Goudsouzian's thoughtful and well researched book. It was a fascinating trip to discover an icon who has been ignored in today's times despite deserving many more accolades than he has been given. What is most compelling about the book, though, is the author's skill in placing his subject in historical context, without which the story would be incomplete. I agree with the previous reviewer -- let's hope Oprah's spotlight on Poitier reflects some light on Goudsouzian as well.