Sidney Poitier has died at the age of 94.
The heartbreaking news was announced on Friday by Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell.
Poitier became an instrumental part of Hollywood history, breaking down barriers to become the very first Black person to win Best Actor at the Academy Awards in 1964. That same year, he also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor.
Both accolades came for his performance in the critically acclaimed 1963 movie, Lilies of the Field.
Poitier's acting career spanned seven decades, with other notable roles coming in To Sir, With Love (1967) and Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967) - movies that broke ground and tackled issues of race and race relations.
As well as his work on the big screen, Poitier was also an international diplomat. From 1997 to 2007, Poitier served as Bahamian Ambassador to Japan, and to UNESCO between 2002 and 2007.
The son of Bahamian farmers, Poitier was born unexpectedly during a family visit to Miami, Florida, on February 20, 1927. His birth granted him US citizenship, as well as Bahamian.
He moved back t0 Miami at the age of 15, before moving on to New York City at the age of 16. Per BBC News, Poitier worked as a dishwasher in NYC, and later said that he first experienced racism while living in the US.
"I lived in a country where I couldn't get a job, except those put aside for my color or my caste," he once said.
Following a brief stint in the US Army, Poitier honed his skills as an actor at the American Negro Theater, which had been established in Harlem in 1940 as a community project. This led to his first breakthrough movie role as a high school student in the 1955 film Blackboard Jungle.
Over his career, he also won a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album and was the recipient of the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2000. Two years later, Poitier was selected to receive an Academy Honorary Award, in recognition of the actor/activist's "remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being."
Additionally, in 1975, Queen Elizabeth II granted Poitier an honorary knighthood. And in 2009, he received the highest civilian honor in the US when President Barack Obama bestowed on him the Presidential Medal Of Freedom.
The beloved actor is survived by six children, eight grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
Our thoughts are with Poitier's family, friends, and fans at this time.
