Bahamian-American actor <PERSON>, whose representation of Black people in film helped change racist perceptions, dies at 94 · Global Voices
<PERSON> at the 38th Charlie Chaplin Award gala, held at the Alice Tully Hall at the Lincoln Center in New York City on May 2, 2011. Photo by <PERSON> on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
Hollywood royalty and elder statesman of the silver screen, Bahamian-American actor <PERSON>, whose trailblazing work in the 1950s and '60s helped break colour barriers, shifting the lens through which Black people were perceived and paving the way for other Black actors to make their mark, died on January 7 at the age of 94.
BREAKING: Beloved Bahamian actor and former ambassador Sir <PERSON> has died. He was 94. A Broadway play about the trailblazing career of the visionary actor was announced last month. Sir <PERSON>'s death was confirmed by Minister of Foreign Affairs <PERSON>. pic.twitter.com/WVJFlog3tC
— Eyewitness News Bahamas (@ewnewsbahamas) January 7, 2022
On learning of <PERSON>'s passing, Prime Minister of The Bahamas <PERSON> addressed the nation, saying, “Even as we mourn, we celebrate the life of a great Bahamian, a cultural icon, an actor and film director, an entrepreneur, human and civil rights activist, and latterly, a diplomat.”
<PERSON> was all those things and more, but <PERSON> also praised who the man was at his core—”his strength of character, his willingness to stand up and be counted, and the way he plotted and navigated his life's journey.”
The youngest of seven children, <PERSON> was born prematurely in Miami on February 20, 1927, to Bahamian parents–farmers who traveled regularly to the States to sell their produce. Though an American citizen, he grew up in the Bahamas, only moving to the United States when he was 15. After working as a dishwasher and thereafter at a veteran's hospital in New York during World War II as part of the U.S. Army, <PERSON> eventually joined the Harlem-based American Negro Theater and found his calling.
<PERSON> in “A Raisin in the Sun”, New York, 1959. 678
Photo by <PERSON> via bswise on Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
His first major film role was “No Way Out” (1950), in which he played a doctor attending to two white racist patients; one dies, prompting a race riot. The film was banned in the southern United States. <PERSON> followed this up with the breakthrough role of a high school student in the 1955 film “Blackboard Jungle” (1955). He also won critical acclaim for his work in “Porgy and Bess” (1959), and “A Raisin in the Sun” (1961).
<PERSON> was pushing through in such roles during the turbulent civil rights movement in the United States. In 1958, <PERSON> and <PERSON> played escaped convicts in “The Defiant Ones”, which earned them both Best Actor Oscar nominations (in <PERSON>'s case, the first for a Black male actor). He didn't win, but the nomination alone was groundbreaking, and the excellence of his performance was acknowledged by the British Academy Film Awards when he won the BAFTA for Best Foreign Actor that year.
His recognition across the pond made him a natural choice for his role in the British film “Cry, the Beloved Country”. Shot in South Africa during apartheid, <PERSON> became even more resolute in his activism, using his fame to press for the equal treatment of Black people, even calling out the press for its unidimensional portrayal of him—and by extension other African-Americans—as simply Black.
“I'm a relatively intelligent man,” he told them. “There are many aspects to my personality that you can explore, I think, very constructively—but you sit here and ask me […] questions that fall continually within the Negroness of my life. You ask me questions that pertain to the narrow scope of the summer riots [of 1967]. I am artist, man, American, contemporary…I am an awful lot of things, so I wish you would pay me the respect due.” The rebuff was in keeping with the dedication with which, throughout the course of his long career, he strove to bring life, dimension and humanity to the characters he portrayed. 378