Sidney Poitier filmography

Sidney Poitier (1927–2022) was an actor and director. He was best known for his groundbreaking and trailblazing work in the 1950s and 1960s. His breakthrough performances in film include The Defiant Ones (1958), Porgy and Bess (1959), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), Paris Blues (1961), Lilies of the Field (1963), A Patch of Blue (1965), To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (all 1967).

Poitier at the Civil Rights March on Washington, D.C in 1963

Filmography

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1947	Sepia Cinderella	Extra	Uncredited
1950	No Way Out	Dr. Luther Brooks		[1][2][3]
1951	Cry, the Beloved Country	Reverend Msimangu		[3]
1952	Red Ball Express	Corporal Andrew Robertson		[4][3]
1954	Go Man Go	Inman Jackson		[5][3]
1955	Blackboard Jungle	Gregory W. Miller		[6][3]
1956	Good-bye, My Lady	Gates Watson		[7]
1957	Edge of the City	Tommy Tyler		[8][7]
	Something of Value	Kimani		[7]
	Band of Angels	Rau-Ru		[9][7]
	The Mark of the Hawk	Obam		[7]
1958	Virgin Island	Marcus		[7]
	The Defiant Ones	Noah Cullen		[10][7]
1959	Porgy and Bess	Porgy		[11][7]
1960	All the Young Men	Sergeant Eddie Towler		[12][7]
1961	A Raisin in the Sun	Walter Lee Younger		[13][14]
	Paris Blues	Eddie Cook		[14]
1962	Pressure Point	Doctor		[14]
1963	The Long Ships	Ali Mansuh		[14]
	Lilies of the Field	Homer Smith		[14]
1965	The Bedford Incident	Ben Munceford		[14]
	The Greatest Story Ever Told	Simon of Cyrene		[14]
	A Patch of Blue	Gordon Ralfe		[15]
	The Slender Thread	Alan Newell		[16]
1966	Duel at Diablo	Toller		[16]
1967	To Sir, with Love	Mark Thackeray		[17][16]
	In the Heat of the Night	Detective Virgil Tibbs		[18][16]
	Guess Who's Coming to Dinner	Dr. John Wade Prentice		[19][16]
1968	For Love of Ivy	Jack Parks		[16]
1969	The Lost Man	Jason Higgs		[16]
1970	They Call Me Mister Tibbs!	Virgil Tibbs		[20]
1971	Brother John	John Kane		[20]
	The Organization	Virgil Tibbs		[20]
1972	Buck and the Preacher	Buck		[20]
1973	A Warm December	Matt Younger		[20]
1974	Uptown Saturday Night	Steve Jackson		[20]
1975	The Wilby Conspiracy	Shack Twala		[20]
	Let's Do it Again	Clyde Williams		[20]
1977	A Piece of the Action	Manny Durrell		[20]
1979	Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist	The Narrator	Short subject	[21]
1988	Shoot to Kill	FBI Agent Warren Stantin
	Little Nikita	Roy Parmenter		[22]
1992	Sneakers	Donald Crease		[23][24]
1997	The Jackal	Carter Preston		[25]
1991	Separate but Equal	Thurgood Marshall	Television film
1995	Children of the Dust	Gypsy Smith	2 episodes	[26]
1996	To Sir, with Love II	Mark Thackeray	Television film	[27]
1997	Mandela and de Klerk	Nelson Mandela		[28]
1998	Free of Eden	Will Cleamons		[29]
	David and Lisa	Dr. Jack Miller		[30]
1999	The Simple Life of Noah Dearborn	Noah Dearborn		[31]
2001	The Last Brickmaker in America	Henry Cobb		[32]

Documentary appearances

• From Whence Cometh My Help (1949)
• King: A Filmed Record... Montgomery to Memphis (1970) (Narrator)
• A Century of Cinema [cy; es; fa; fr; it] (1994)
• Wild Bill: Hollywood Maverick [es] (1996)
• Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey (2001) (Narrator)
• Tell Them Who You Are [es] (2004)
• Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (2008)
• Sidney (2022)

Director

• Buck and the Preacher (1972) (Also uncredited as producer)
• A Warm December (1973)
• Uptown Saturday Night (1974)
• Let's Do it Again (1975)
• A Piece of the Action (1977)
• Stir Crazy (1980)^[33]
• Hanky Panky (1982)
• Fast Forward (1985)^[34]
• Ghost Dad (1990)^[35]

Television

Performer

Year	Title	Notes
1952	CBS Television Workshop	Episode: Careless Love
	Omnibus	Episode: The Trial of Anne Boleyn

Talk show appearances

Year	Title	Notes
1962	The Jack Paar Tonight Show	1 episode
1969	The Mike Douglas Show
1972	The Dick Cavett Show
	The New Bill Cosby Show
1975	The Merv Griffin Show
1979	The Mike Douglas Show
2000–2007	The Oprah Winfrey Show	5 episodes
2008	Larry King Live	1 episode