(WJW)– Sidney Poitier, the first Black man to win the Academy Award for best actor, has died at the age of 94, multiple outlets reported on Friday.
The Bahamian-American actor’s film career spanned more than six decades. He won the Oscar in 1963 for his portrayal of Homer Smith in “Lilies in the Field” and was previously nominated for his role in “The Defiant Ones.”
He was given a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2009. Poitier was made an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1974.

He also served as the ambassador from the Bahamas to Japan.