Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty
Harry Belafonte, who died Tuesday at age 96, held a decades-long friendship with his frequent costar and fellow civil rights activistSidney Poitier.
The two groundbreaking artists — Belafonte was the first Black person to win an Emmy Award, while the late Poitier was the first Black man to win a Best Actor Oscar — met in the mid-1940s as they worked at The American Negro Theatre in New York City, both age 20.
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Outside of their shared love for performing, Poitier and Belafonte were active participants in the civil rights movement. The pair, who were both friends with Martin Luther King. Jr, each helped plan the 1963 March on Washington and King’s memorial following his 1968 assassination.
After Poitier’sdeath at age 94in Jan. 2022, Belafonte’s daughter Shari Belafonte told PEOPLE: “Losing Sidney is probably the most difficult thing my father has had to fathom, more so than losing Martin L. King.”
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She added, “They both focused on making this world a better place for all people, not just people of color. We grieve for his loss and for his wife and children, our extended family.”
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Harry Belafonte and Sidney Poitier in ‘Uptown Saturday Night’.Getty
In 1964, Belafonte convinced Poitier to help him deliver $70,000 to Freedom Summer volunteers in Mississippi; members of the Ku Klux Klan chased and fired at the pair along the way, according toThe New York Times.
In his own statement at the time of Poitier’s death in 2022, Belafonte said: “For over 80 years, Sidney and I laughed, cried and made as much mischief as we could. He was truly my brother and partner in trying to make this world a little better. He certainly made mine a whole lot better.”
source: people.com
