RIP - BREAKING: Beloved Bahamian actor and former ambassador Sir Sidney Poitier has died.
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My father's people are from (and still live in) that infested boil on the asshole of the world called "Mississippi."
Went to a "juke joint" with my (Viet Nam vet uncle) so deep in the goddamned woods I could barely see the road in front of the car. Barely made it out without serious bloodshed.
People in that state are just... it is difficult to describe.
I swore never, ever to set foot in that hell hole again. Didn't even go for my family member's funeral--it is just that fucked up. Some places so damned dark and remote you can't even use your damn phone.
There is a reason the blues genre was created in Mississippi.
I could not agree more.
He epitomized DIGNITY in everything he did.
May he rise in light and power.
RIP
Too many classics to name and his presence was a factor in Black culture period.
Too many classics to name and his presence was a factor in Black culture period.
Sidney Poitier Died of Heart Failure and Suffered from Alzheimer's Dementia, Death Certificate Reveals
Sidney Poitier died on Thursday, Jan. 6, at 94 years old
Sidney Poitier died from heart failure, death certificate reveals
The Hollywood trailblazer died Jan. 6, at 94.
By Benjamin VanHooseJanuary 18, 2022 at 05:37 PM EST
Sidney Poitier died at his home in Beverly Hills from heart failure, his death certificate reveals.
According to the official document obtained by TMZ Tuesday, the legendary actor died on Thursday, Jan. 6, at the age of 94 from cardiopulmonary failure. It also listed that he had suffered from Alzheimer's dementia and prostate cancer over the years, and that Poitier would be cremated.
Poitier was known both as a trailblazing actor/director and activist. In 1964, he became the first Black actor to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his work on the 1963 film Lilies of the Field.
Beyond acting, Poitier was an advocate who fought for civil rights, often alongside his close friend of nearly 80 years, Harry Belafonte. They helped organize the March on Washington and plan Martin Luther King Jr.'s memorial after his assassination.
Sidney Poitier
| CREDIT: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES
In an emotional statement posted to Instagram last week, one of his daughters, Sydney, paid tribute to her late dad.
"There are no words for this. No real way to prepare for this. No prose beautiful enough, no speech eloquent enough to capture the essence of my dad," she wrote, adding that his accomplishments "quite literally changed the landscape for everyone who came after him."
"We know how graceful and wise he was. How powerful his strength of character and moral fortitude. But what I really want people to know is how GOOD he was," she continued.
"I know people know he was good, but I don't think they know the depth of his goodness. That it permeated every cell of his being. The sort of goodness that prevented him from killing even the tiniest of bugs," Sydney wrote.
"He knew on a cellular level that if he hurt anyone or anything, he hurt everyone and everything," she continued, explaining that her dad "treated anyone who crossed his path as his equal and offered them his full presence."
Sydney wrote that she's not only grieving because she lost her dad, but also because "the world lost so much goodness," comparing the Lilies of the Field actor to a lighthouse: "Warm and bright. No matter the storms whipping around him, he stood unwavering shining his light."
"We thought we were taking care of him. I see now that the truth is he was still taking care of us," she added, describing his last few years. "He was reminding us, particularly in these uncertain times, of the power of GOODNESS. That even when the body is fading and things seem to be falling apart around us, the goodness remains."
Sidney Poitier in 'Lilies of the Field'
| CREDIT: UNITED ARTISTS/GETTY IMAGES
Sydney went on to write that she would miss the little things, like laying her head on his shoulder, watching her daughter "take a running leap onto his bed and wrap her arms around him" and hearing him "fill the house with his healing laughter."
"But then I remember that even though his physical body is gone now, his goodness lives on," she wrote, noting that her father "lives on in his wife, his children, his grandchildren, in his movies and books, in every warm embrace he offered an adoring fan, every piece of advice he gave to those he mentored, every tiny bug he gently placed outside."
"I will miss you more than words can express Dad. I will feel you in the warmth of the sun on my back, I will hear you in the wind in the trees and I will look for you among the stars where you will surely be," she concluded. "I love you."
I never heard about his funeral being held, must have been very private and low key.
He was cremated
I just read on People, ET, and another site that the family is going to hold a private memorial due to the COVID numbers but may hold a public memorial at a later date.
I don't know if the private memorial means he'll be cremated later or he already has.
He also suffered from dementia in recent years which explains why he wasn't been seen publicly in a while.
Dementia sucks. It robs people of their ability to communicate and remember. It's like being tortured inside of a shell that used to be your life that you don't remember fully
