--- title: Celebrating Sidney Poitier: 13 Great LIFE Magazine Photos description: Here, LIFE celebrates the actor and icon — born Feb. 20, 1927 — with a selection of some of the magazine's best images of his career. canonical: https://time.com/4661733/sidney-poitier-life-magazine/ author: Lily Rothman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-02-17T17:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:50:22.906Z og:title: Celebrating Sidney Poitier: 13 Great LIFE Magazine Photos og:description: The actor and icon was born Feb. 20, 1927 og:url: https://time.com/4661733/sidney-poitier-life-magazine/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb115e6552f270a39/6988b9028fd2eecbe2355aee/170206-sidney-poitier-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Sidney Poitier og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Celebrating Sidney Poitier: 13 Great LIFE Magazine Photos twitter:description: The actor and icon was born Feb. 20, 1927 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb115e6552f270a39/6988b9028fd2eecbe2355aee/170206-sidney-poitier-06.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Celebrating Sidney Poitier at 90: LIFE's Best Photographs of a Star in Action by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Feb 17, 2017 5:00 PM UTC  Sidney Poitier in a dramatic scene from the play A Raisin in the Sun, with Ruby Dee, 1959. Sidney Poitier in a dramatic scene from the play A Raisin in the Sun, with Ruby Dee, 1959.Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images by [Lily Rothman](https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/) and [Liz Ronk](https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/) Feb 17, 2017 5:00 PM UTC In 1959, when LIFE magazine [profiled](https://books.google.com/books?id=XkgEAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=poitier&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi09JDkq5DSAhWC7iYKHdpdDp04HhDoAQglMAM#v=onepage&q=poitier&f=false) the star of a new production of _A Raisin in the Sun,_ Sidney Poitier was 32 and “already accepted almost without question as the best Negro actor in the history of the American theater.” In the months leading up to that assessment, he had played Porgy in _Porgy and Bess_ and become the first black actor nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, for his work in _The Defiant Ones_. (He lost that time around but would win a few years later for _Lilies of the Field_.)  Feb. 4, 1966 cover of LIFE magazine featuring Sammy Davis Jr., Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier photographed by Philippe Halsman. LIFE Magazine “Whenever Poitier walks on stage, excitement walks on with him. He seems to be taking it easy most of the time but with the hidden tension of a coiled spring. In appearance he veers between man and boy. His open grin and handsomely boyish head set off a powerful body. He can be as appealing as a child or show a shattering range of deep adult emotion,” wrote entertainment editor Tom Prideaux. “Today, acting and Poitier seem made for each other.” As Poitier approaches his 90th birthday on Monday — he was born Feb. 20, 1927 — LIFE presents a look back at some of the magazine’s most striking images of the star, who appeared early one in its pages in a [1950 story](https://books.google.com/books?id=Ck4EAAAAMBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22sidney+poitier%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjKjJPenpDSAhWDVyYKHZwdA484HhDoAQg1MAc#v=onepage&q=%22sidney%20poitier%22&f=false) about the film _No Way Out,_ went on to appear on the [cover in 1966](https://books.google.com/books?id=JkwEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA70&dq=poitier&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9peuQnpDSAhXDRiYKHQK5DxEQ6AEIKDAC#v=onepage&q=poitier&f=false) (at left) and became a mainstay of the magazine’s coverage of Hollywood as well as the civil rights movement. As these pictures make clear, his career has been one of breadth as well as depth. “It has been a long journey,” as Poitier [said](http://time.com/vault/issue/1964-04-24/page/76/) when he accepted his Oscar in 1964, “to this moment.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4661733/sidney-poitier-life-magazine/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4661733/sidney-poitier-life-magazine/"},"headline":"Celebrating Sidney Poitier at 90: LIFE's Best Photographs of a Star in Action","datePublished":"2017-02-17T17:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T04:50:22.906Z","description":"The actor and icon was born Feb. 20, 1927","url":"https://time.com/4661733/sidney-poitier-life-magazine/","keywords":["Hollywood","photography","Civil Rights","Theater","LIFE Magazine","Icons"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb115e6552f270a39/6988b9028fd2eecbe2355aee/170206-sidney-poitier-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"},{"@type":"Person","name":"Liz Ronk","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/liz-ronk/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb115e6552f270a39/6988b9028fd2eecbe2355aee/170206-sidney-poitier-06.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sidney Poitier","caption":"Sidney Poitier in a dramatic scene from play \"A Raisin in the Sun\", with Ruby Dee, 1959.","creditText":"Gordon Parks—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4661733/sidney-poitier-life-magazine/","name":"Celebrating Sidney Poitier at 90: LIFE's Best Photographs of a Star in Action"}}]}] ```