Sidney Poitier Mourned, Mount Vernon Roots Recalled

MOUNT VERNON, NY — The world lost one of the last of the silver screen legends of the golden age of Hollywood, but one Hudson Valley community is feeling the loss of a hometown hero a bit more personally.

Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win an Academy Award, has died. He was 94 years old.

"Rest In Peace Sidney Poitier," Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard wrote in a social media post lamenting the loss of a former city resident who became a household name around the globe. "Ninety fours years of grace, passion and excellence. An incredible Ambassador and example to so many. My heart aches but you have left us with so many memories."

• SEE ALSO: How Sidney Poitier Got His Start In Harlem

Poitier, winner of the best actor Oscar in 1964 for “Lilies of the Field,” died Thursday in the Bahamas, according to the AP.

Over his impressive career as an actor, film director, activist and ambassador, he received two more Academy Award nominations, ten Golden Globes nominations, two Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, six BAFTA nominations, eight Laurel nominations and a Screen Actors Guild Awards nomination.

Poitier also served as Ambassador to Japan from the Bahamas.

Poitier is best known for his award-winning leading roles in "In the Heat of the Night," "To Sir, With Love" and "Guess Who's Coming To Dinner," but it is perhaps his role in changing the way Black actors are portrayed on the screen that will be his lasting legacy.

When former Mount Vernon Mayor Richard Thomas wrote a 2017 column praising Mount Vernon's oversized contributions to the world of arts, he paid respect to native sons and daughters Denzel Washington, Sean "P. Diddy" Combs and Nina Simone, but he singled out Poitier with special pride. It was in Mount Vernon that the iconic actor began his early rise from dishwasher to Academy Award winner and Presidential Medal of Freedom honoree.

Poitier's rise to stardom didn't come easy. He recounted early disastrous New York City auditions when he first decided to pursue acting.

“As I walked to the bus, what humiliated me was the suggestion that all he could see in me was a dishwasher. If I submitted to him, I would be aiding him in making that perception a prophetic one,” Poitier told the AP of his initial foray onto the stage. “I got so pissed, I said, ‘I’m going to become an actor — whatever that is. I don’t want to be an actor, but I’ve got to become one to go back there and show him that I could be more than a dishwasher.’ That became my goal.”

Poitier's signature gravitas was soon earning him the very roles he had earlier been discouraged from attempting. It was during his time in Mount Vernon that he developed the chops that would take him to the zenith of his stardom.

Poitier's humble Mount Vernon former house belies the influence of the performer once lived there. The home, now a piece of history, is currently on the market.

• SEE ALSO: The Power of Mount Vernon

The AP contributed to this article.