OPEN LETTER|CULTURE
To Sidney Poitier, With (An Immense Amount Of) Love (And Respect)
An homage to one of my all-time favorite human beings
“They call me Mister Tibbs!” — Detective Virgil Tibbs (played by Sidney Poitier) in the film In the Heat of the Night
Dear Mr. Poitier,
It was just a few days ago that I found out that you transitioned from this realm on January 6th of this year.
My eyes are wet with tears and a lump has lodged itself in my throat as I sit here thinking of the impact that your exemplary films and life have had on my life ever since I was a young girl.
My first introduction to your work was an album cover. It contained the album that was the soundtrack to the opera (by George Gershwin) that became a film called Porgy and Bess.
Honestly, to my very young mind, it was not my cup of tea. However, my mom absolutely loved this album and played it often, which I grew to appreciate later in life.
Thanks again to my mother, I watched you star in one of my favorite movies, “To Sir, With Love”.
You played a character that became very near and dear to my heart.
Even though it was released 9 years before I was even born, its impact on me has lasted throughout my entire life, especially now as I embark on my new career as a teacher in a foreign country, just like Mr. Thackeray.
I saw in you the “father figure” I’d never had in my life, just like many of those punk and troublesome kids in the movie.
The dedication, respect, lessons, love, and loyalty that you showed towards the teaching profession, your colleagues, and, most of all, your students left an indelible mark, along with what became one of my all-time favorite songs.
Apparently, from the countless things I have read about you over the decades since, that character embodies many similar traits that made you quite a remarkable human being.
I didn’t even realize what a stellar career you had, including directing until I read the following article:
The final film of Poitier’s impressive 1967 run was Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, a reuniting with Stanley Kramer and co-starring Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, and Hepburn’s niece Katharine Houghton. Poitier and Houghton played an interracial couple who are looking to get her parents’ (played by Tracy and Hepburn) approval before they get married. It was an extremely topical movie, with interracial marriage not becoming nationally legalized in America until six months before the films release. This was an even bigger box office hit than In the Heat of the Night, grossing over $56 million, and was popular across the country, even in Southern states. It also scored a bevy of nominations at the Oscars, including for Best Picture, Best Actor (for Tracy), and Hepburn won for Best Actress. In 1967, Poitier was the biggest box office draw in America, with his films grossing over $100 million combined. Poitier’s year in 1967, from both a critical and commercial standpoint, is rivaled by few others in film history.
Surprisingly, I have yet to watch Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner even though that movie is right up my alley with it featuring an interracial couple and being biracial myself.
I will make it a point to see this movie along with some of the others that I have yet to see on that impressive list of films in which you have starred or directed.
Through your work, your legacy lives on.
Through my heart, your love carries on…
and I love you for that —
Always,
KL Simmons
“Living consciously involves being genuine; it involves listening and responding to others honestly and openly; it involves being in the moment.”
“I find myself, at this time in my life, no less challenged, no less plagued, no less intrigued by what I still don’t know.”
“I’d seen my father. He was a poor man, and I watched him do astonishing things.”
“I had chosen to use my work as a reflection of my values.”
— Sidney Poitier
A few more of my stories:
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