(born 1924) Actor born in Miami, FL of Caribbean (Bahamian) descent. Poitier became one of the first black actors to reach movie stardom in the 1960s. In many roles, unfortunately from preacher to teacher to policeman, he often seemed to gain equality only by incredible superiority. Nominated for an Oscar for The Defiant Ones (1958), he won Best Actor for Lilies of the Field (1973), the only African American man so honored for thirty years. Primarily a director in the 1970s, his career revived in the 1990s; he received an AFI achievement award in 1992.