The Life and Legacy of Sidney Poitier

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 14 January 2022

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sidney Poitier, who was Hollywood’s first Black matinee idol and who helped open the door for Black actors in the film industry, died last week. He was 94. For Wesley Morris, a Times culture critic, it is Mr. Poitier — not John Wayne, Cary Grant or Marilyn Monroe — who is the greatest American movie star. “His legacy is so much wider and deeper than the art itself,” Wesley said. “This man has managed to affect what we see, how we relate to people, who we think we are, who we should aspire to be. And if that’s not a sign of greatness, I don’t know what is.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today's episode of The Daily is sponsored by BetterHelp.
0:03.5	Why not take the next 10 seconds to focus on your breath, whatever you are doing, wherever
0:08.1	you are.
0:09.1	Breathe in.
0:10.9	Breathe out.
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0:23.6	Listeners get 10% of their first month at BetterHelp.com slash daily pod.
0:28.4	From New York Times, I'm Michael Bavaro.
0:36.0	This is The Daily.
0:44.0	Today, against all odds, Sydney Pauatic, the first black man to win an Academy Award, changed
0:53.2	American cinema.
0:55.4	And Wesley Morris, a culture critic at the Times, said it went further than that, that
1:01.2	Pauatic transformed America itself.
1:07.9	It's Friday, January 14.
1:16.4	Wesley when Sydney Pauatic died, you sat down and you wrote an essay about him and I wonder
1:23.5	if you can read the opening words of that essay.
1:27.8	One second please.
1:31.2	Okay.
1:33.5	On January 7, 2022, I, Wesley Morris, wrote, where anyone to ask me who's the greatest
1:41.9	American movie star, my answer would never change.
	...

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