Sidney Poitier arrived in New York from the Bahamas barely literate and working as a dishwasher. He taught himself to read with newspapers, was laughed out of his first audition, then became the first Black man to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.

This episode follows Poitier through his groundbreaking roles and the weight of representing an entire race in Hollywood with a dignity that cost him personally but changed the industry.

• He was the first Black actor to win Best Actor, for Lilies of the Field in 1964
• In 1967 he starred in three of the year’s top films simultaneously
• He served as Bahamian Ambassador to Japan for over a decade
• He taught himself to read as a teenager with help from a restaurant waiter