Sidney Poitier’s Sir
Reflecting on the death of a twentieth-century cultural icon.
There’s an unrelenting pace to obituaries of cultural icons from the twentieth century. Recent ones include venerable figures such as Joan Didion, Michael Nesmith, John Madden, and Sidney Poitier. Writers, musicians, sportsmen, and actors that gave shape to a shared culture before cable and the internet sliced the reach of today’s icons into cultural slivers. It is the death of Sidney Poitier that has stayed on my mind.
I had not thought of Mr. Poitier for a long time until the recent news. I ‘met’ Sidney Poitier when he was Mr. Thackeray in the movie, “To Sir, With Love.” I was a few years younger than his charges, working-class boys and girls that were the antithesis of his dignified style, often challenging his authority. His inexperience and his race made him an easy mark for the ruffians in the schoolroom and in the gym.
Mr. Poitier’s portrayal of Mr. Thackeray generated magnetic fascination. He was an ‘other’ to root for, a new Black saint in the mold of St. Martin de Porres, a revered religious icon from my early childhood. Clearly head and shoulders above his peers and his students, Mr. Thackeray’s elegant and stoic personality won me over as much as it won over his British students, blue-collar teenagers typical of the post-war West of the Sixties. His temporary teaching position — he’s waiting for his engineering job to be approved — becomes an apprenticeship, finding out as much about himself as he does about his students. It is a job he takes on with gusto and gravitas.
The title tune is sung by Lulu, who plays one of the teenagers in the class. The paean is unexceptional, but with a hook that is as memorable as the Mr. Thackeray’s look when his students disappoint him, “If you wanted the moon I would try to make a start/ But I would rather you let me give my heart,/ To Sir, With Love.” Mr. Thackeray becomes a mentor these boys and girls will never forget.
Sidney Poitier had many other memorable roles, including one which won him an Oscar for Best Actor, becoming the first Black actor to do so. Aware that movie portrayals can differ greatly from the actor, it was pleasing to read obituary after obituary that highlighted not only his groundbreaking accomplishments as an actor, but also his participation in the civil-rights struggle, his quiet charisma, and his nobility. We need more heroes like Sidney Poitier.
