Sidney Poitier- Actor, Filmmaker, Diplomat

Sidney Poitier was born to Evelyn and Reginald James Poitier of Cat Island in the Bahamas. His parents were farmers in the Bahamas with a large produce farm. The family regularly travelled from the Bahamas to Miami, USA, to sell tomatoes and other produce. When the family visited Miami in February 1927, Evelyn gave birth to Sidney two months early.

His parents remained behind in Miami with their newborn son for three months to nurse him to health, before bringing him back to the family farm on Cat Island. Poitier would grow up on Cat Island until he was 10, when he then moved to Nassau, where he would live for the next five years. Poitier is considered a Bahamian-American, but his uncle once told the story of the family’s arrival in the Bahamas. He claims that Reginald’s side of the family came to the Bahamas from Haiti long before.

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