Getting to the Heart of Poitier

Sidney Poitier, Hollywood icon, Oscar-winning actor, civil rights activist, producer and director, and the artist who broke down the color barrier with his distinguished depiction of African Americans in cinema, had a simple answer when approached by director-actress Lee Grant about making a PBS biography on his life and career.

Thanks. But no thanks.

Despite his status in the entertainment industry as a pioneer, as well as a true movie star who in 1967 made three back-to-back hits that defined the joy and turbulence of the era--”Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “To Sir, With Love”--Poitier traditionally has been shy and uninterested in focusing attention on his accomplishments.

Poitier is fiercely protective of his time, privacy and family. Participating in a documentary about his life was a low priority at best.

“I’ve never been comfortable with the public nature of celebrity,” the 72-year-old actor, who remains strikingly youthful and handsome, said in a recent interview. “There are just aspects of it that conflict with my personality.”

But Grant, a friend of Poitier’s ever since they appeared together in “In the Heat of the Night,” was passionate about making the documentary, sensing it would be an important document of one of Hollywood’s most influential and important artists. She pressed him for years and wouldn’t let up. Finally, he surrendered.

“It took a bit of crying,” Grant said. “But I was so happy when it happened.”

The result is the latest edition of PBS’ “American Masters” titled “Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light,” which airs tonight at 8. The one-hour biography, directed and narrated by Grant, traces Poitier from his childhood in the Bahamas through his awkward and nearly disastrous beginnings as an actor in New York. It also chronicles his solid film career, his emotional salute at the 1995 Kennedy Center Honors and his appointment as ambassador to Japan from the Bahamas.

The documentary is the first of two television tributes to Poitier this year. The actor will receive the Lifetime Achievement Award at the sixth annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, which will be broadcast live by TNT on March 12.

But it is the “One Bright Light” project that both Poitier and Grant are embracing. Grant filmed more than 30 hours of interviews with Poitier, who unveils a vivacious and emotional side that has been largely hidden from the public.

On view as well are the more familiar images of Poitier in some of his most memorable roles: the taunting youth in “Blackboard Jungle”; the tragic schemer in “Raisin in the Sun”; the bitter convict chained to bigoted fellow inmate Tony Curtis in “The Defiant Ones”; the detective--”They call me Mr. Tibbs”--seething with quiet rage when he runs up against prejudice in Mississippi in “In the Heat of the Night”; and the man who teaches the nuns in “Lilies of the Field,” for which he became the first and only black to win an Academy Award for best actor.

The walls that Poitier broke down for black actors are evident, particularly in one scene in “In the Heat of the Night” in which he is slapped without provocation by a white greenhouse manager, and he slaps back.

The documentary also reveals the more personal and poignant side of Poitier.

In the opening sequence of the documentary, the actor’s joy of discovery is contagious as he tells of his wonder at the first movie he saw in a theater, thinking the cows and the cowboys were really inside the building instead of being projected on a wall. Poitier said he came to Hollywood because he wanted to be a cowboy.

He becomes tellingly silent while recalling how his father, who felt he was “incorrigible,” sent him off to his brother in the States when he was a young boy. Poitier is also shown visiting the grave site of his parents in the Bahamas, and attending a Poitier family gathering.

Also featured are interviews with noted actors such as James Earl Jones and Denzel Washington, and Quincy Jones, who declares, “Sidney invented the African American in film. He invented it and then he perfected it.”

Key to getting Poitier to open up was Grant’s traveling with him to his hometown of Cat Island: “I knew that once I was there with him, it would open doors for both of us. And it did. Just talking about his childhood would take an hourlong documentary. Each part is so important and definitive.”

Poitier said it was Grant’s encouragement and interest that finally convinced him to devote himself to the project. “I have known her for many years, and as an actress, she is just mesmerizing, very gifted. I knew that as a director, she would know how to handle it. I thought about it for quite a while, and she kept checking in. Finally, I said, ‘I’ll do it, for no one but you.’ She is a kindred soul.”

Imagination Was His Best Friend

Discussing “One Bright Light” in a hotel suite in Pasadena, Poitier speaks deliberately and with humbleness in his voice. The star quality and warmth that drew black and white audiences to his films is still very much in evidence, but there is a cautiousness about him. He does not take great pleasure in being considered a cultural symbol.

“That is not the person I carry around with me,” he said. “The person I carry around is still very much alive, not in the past.” Because of his youthful struggles as an adolescent and an actor, he was forced to grow up fast.

“I had to skip that young part of my life, and it is that which is still very much alive,” Poitier said. “I also carry around a young man who had his imagination as one of his closest companions. Daydreaming was one of my most satisfying and wonderful experiences. Those imaginings remain a part of me. So the person I carry around is not some symbol, but he’s a guy who’s had numerous experiences. At his heart, he’s a shy guy and a loner.”

As for why crossover audiences responded so enthusiastically to him, Poitier theorizes, “I suspect there might be something of my mother in me that the camera picks up. She was a very remarkable woman--a simple, ordinary woman with qualities in her personality that I couldn’t articulate. It might very well be something I inherited from her that people see when they watch me work.”

He is particularly careful as he discusses the legacy of his career. He said he sees his films and his roles as a reflection of his value system and of his maturity. There is no single performance he points to as the definitive Sidney Poitier performance, though there are patches from several roles that he takes special pride in.

“There were such moments in ‘Raisin,’ ‘The Defiant Ones,’ ‘In the Heat of the Night,’ ‘A Warm December.’ ”

A slow smile creeps across his face. “And ‘A Piece of the Action.’ I remember seeing that again not along ago. And I can say to myself, ‘That was it. I got close to the mark.’ ”

Poitier maintains he hasn’t hung up his acting and directing shingle yet: “It depends on the material. I would want something really seductive and challenging. I have no need to repeat myself. I would like to close out my career with something that complements what’s behind me. I would like people to see it and say, ‘That is what I would expect of this artist. He has not disappointed me.’ ”

* “American Masters” series “Sidney Poitier: One Bright Light” can been seen tonight at 8 on KCET and KVCR.