Legendary actor and civil rights icon Sidney Poitier passed away at the age of 94 in his Los Angeles, California home. He made history as he was the first Black person and first Bahamian to win the Academy Award for Best Actor.  

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Poitier’s legendary career as an actor included 55 films such as To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. He used his platform to advocate onscreen and offscreen as a humanitarian by shining light on racial issues. 

“He just basically paved the way for not only the male entities of our industry but also the females,” said legendary Grammy Award-winning singer Dionne Warwick. “He just had such an aura that I felt I wanna be just like that when I grow up. He was real.” 

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As a result, Poitier would receive several Golden Globe and Emmy nominations, culminating with an honorary award in the 2002 Oscars for his “remarkable accomplishments as an artist and as a human being.” 

Warwick shared an inspiring friendship with Poitier and said on Twitter, “He once caught me following him. He said “little girl what do you want” I muttered “can I have your autograph”. From that day he always called me little girl and asked if I wanted his autograph. It was something we laughed about. He was my hero & great friend. May he RIP.” 

She went more in depth about the story on BNC with Marc Lamont Hill. 

“From that day to the very last time I saw him, which was quite recent as a matter of fact, I’m not greeted as ‘Hello Dionne,’ I’m greeted with ‘Hey little girl do you want my autograph?’” she said. 

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“If I had someone like [Poitier] in my life for the rest of my life, that’s exactly what I wanted,” Warwick said. “He epitomized that.”