Q 01/05

In which US city was Sidney Poitier born in 1927?

A) New York

B) Atlanta

C) Miami

D) New Orleans

Answer · why

C) Miami

Miami was an accident of timing: his Bahamian parents had sailed over to sell their tomato crop when he arrived prematurely, and the birthplace made h...

Q 02/05

Where in the Bahamas did Poitier grow up until the age of ten?

A) Andros

B) Grand Bahama

C) Eleuthera

D) Cat Island

Answer · why

D) Cat Island

Cat Island, where his family farmed tomatoes, was home until he was ten. Only after the move to Nassau did he see his first car, or his own face in a ...

Q 03/05

Which 1963 film made Poitier the first Black winner of the Best Actor Oscar?

A) Lilies of the Field

B) A Raisin in the Sun

C) In the Heat of the Night

D) The Defiant Ones

Answer · why

A) Lilies of the Field

Lilies of the Field was shot in Arizona in fourteen days on a shoestring budget, yet it brought Poitier the Oscar, handed over by Anne Bancroft in Apr...

Q 04/05

What is the name of Poitier's Oscar-winning character, a handyman who builds a chapel for nuns?

A) Mark Thackeray

B) Gordon Ralfe

C) Homer Smith

D) John Prentice

Answer · why

C) Homer Smith

Homer Smith is an itinerant handyman who stops for water at a desert farm run by East German nuns. Their Mother Superior is convinced God sent him, an...

Q 05/05

Which hymn do the nuns learn from Poitier's handyman in his Oscar-winning film?

A) 'Kumbaya'

B) 'Amazing Grace'

C) 'Down by the Riverside'

D) 'Amen'

Answer · why

D) 'Amen'

'Amen' is the gospel song the handyman teaches the nuns, but the voice is not Poitier's. Jester Hairston, who arranged it for the film, dubbed his sin...