Oprah Winfrey is paying tribute to the late Sidney Poitier as the producer of the new documentary Sidney, which premiered September 10 at the Toronto Film Festival.
Winfrey was a close friend of the iconic actor who became the first Black man to win an Academy Award for best actor in 1964 for his role in Lilies of the Field.
“I learned from watching him, Maya Angelou, and Quincy Jones what it means to be a real star. The bigger the star, the more humble you are with everyone else,” Oprah told BET.
“I’ve seen nothing but humility in his personal and professional life. I’ve learned to ground myself with everything around me because he was my counsel, friend and advisor,” she added. “He was a steady force of humility and integrity.”
Working with director Reginald Hudlin, the 19-time Emmy winner says her goal for the documentary is for the public “to see the best of what it means to be a real man and what the measure of a man is.”
“To this day, Poitier’s daughters still see him as a dad because he had great stories to tell them and gathered them as a family unit,” Oprah continued. “Reginald and I wanted audiences to see their hope and possibility through the light of Sidney Poitier’s magnificent life.”
Sidney features interviews with Denzel Washington, Harry Belafonte, Quincy Jones, Halle Berry, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Spike Lee, Morgan Freeman and many more.
The documentary will be shown in select theaters and will debut on Apple TV+ Friday, September 23.
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