Tributes paid to Sidney Poitier following his death aged 94

The star helped pave the way for generations of African-American actors.

Tributes have been paid to Hollywood star Sidney Poitier after his death at the age of 94.

The Bahamian-American actor was known for films including In the Heat Of The Night, Blackboard Jungle and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner – and was the first black man to win the Oscar for best actor.

His death was reported by local media in the Bahamas.

Jeffrey Wright, Whoopi Goldberg and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were among those paying tribute.

Bond star Wright said: “Sidney Poitier. What a landmark actor. One of a kind. What a beautiful, gracious, warm, genuinely regal man. RIP, Sir. With love.”

Goldberg quoted the lyrics to the song To Sir With Love, which soundtracked Poitier’s 1967 film.

She said: “If you wanted the sky i would write across the sky in letters that would soar a thousand feet high.. To Sir… with Love. Sir Sidney Poitier R.I.P. He showed us how to reach for the stars.”

Gordon-Levitt described him as an “An absolute legend. One of the greats”.

Best known for his work during the 50s and 60s, Poitier helped pave the way for generations of African-American actors.

Born to Bahamian parents in 1927 while they were visiting Miami to sell tomatoes, his premature arrival meant he gained US citizenship as well as Bahamian.

Poitier grew up in the Bahamas, which was then a British colony.

He returned to America aged 15 and worked in a string of low-paid jobs including as a dishwasher, before lying about his age and joining the Army to fight during the Second World War.

He later joined the American Negro Theatre, which had been set up as a community project in Harlem in 1940.

His first major role came in Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata in 1946 but by 1949 he had moved away from theatre and into film.

His breakthrough came in Blackboard Jungle in 1955, playing a rebellious but musically talented pupil in an inner-city school.

Three years later, he was nominated for an Oscar and won a Bafta for his performance in The Defiant Ones, about two escaped prisoners, one white and one black, who are shackled together and must work with each other to achieve freedom.

In 1963, he was awarded an Oscar for Lilies Of The Field and became the first black winner of the best actor trophy.