1
In the Heat of the Night (1967)
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Director Norman Jewison
Writer Stirling Silliphant, John Ball
Cast Sidney Poitier, Rod Steiger, Warren Oates
Plot A black Philadelphia police detective is mistakenly suspected of a local murder while passing through a racially hostile Mississippi town, and after being cleared is reluctantly asked by the police chief to investigate the case.
2
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967)
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Director Stanley Kramer
Writer William Rose
Cast Spencer Tracy, Sidney Poitier, Katharine Hepburn
Plot A White couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter introduces them to her Black fiancé.
3
The Defiant Ones (1958)
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Director Stanley Kramer
Writer Nedrick Young, Harold Jacob Smith
Cast Tony Curtis, Sidney Poitier, Cara Williams
Plot Two chained-together escaped convicts, one white and one black, must learn to get along in order to elude capture.
4
To Sir, with Love (1967)
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Director James Clavell
Writer E.R. Braithwaite, James Clavell
Cast Sidney Poitier, Judy Geeson, Christian Roberts
Plot Idealistic engineer-trainee and his experiences in teaching a group of rambunctious white high school students from the slums of London's East End.
5
A Patch of Blue (1965)
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Director Guy Green
Writer Elizabeth Kata, Guy Green
Cast Sidney Poitier, Shelley Winters, Elizabeth Hartman
Plot A blind, uneducated white girl is befriended by a black man who becomes determined to help her escape her impoverished and abusive home life by introducing her to the outside world.
6
A Raisin in the Sun (1961)
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Director Daniel Petrie
Writer Lorraine Hansberry
Cast Sidney Poitier, Claudia McNeil, Ruby Dee
Plot A substantial insurance payment could mean either financial salvation or personal ruin for a poor black family.
7
Lilies of the Field (1963)
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Director Ralph Nelson
Writer James Poe, William E. Barrett
Cast Sidney Poitier, Lilia Skala, Lisa Mann
Plot A travelling handyman becomes the answer to the prayers of nuns who wish to build a chapel in the desert.
8
The Bedford Incident (1965)
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Director James B. Harris
Writer Mark Rascovich, James Poe
Cast Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, James MacArthur
Plot An American destroyer Captain is determined to confront a Soviet submarine caught violating territorial waters. Perhaps too determined.
9
Sneakers (1992)
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Director Phil Alden Robinson
Writer Phil Alden Robinson, Lawrence Lasker, Walter F. Parkes
Cast Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Sidney Poitier
Plot A security pro finds his past returning to haunt him when he and his unique team are tasked with retrieving a particularly important item.
10
Shoot to Kill (1988)
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Director Roger Spottiswoode
Writer Harv Zimmel, Michael Burton, Daniel Petrie Jr.
Cast Sidney Poitier, Tom Berenger, Kirstie Alley
Plot An F.B.I. Agent teams up with a tracker to pursue a murderer after he vanishes into the mountains and infiltrates a hiking group.
11
Edge of the City (1957)
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Director Martin Ritt
Writer Robert Alan Aurthur
Cast John Cassavetes, Sidney Poitier, Jack Warden
Plot The budding friendship of two NYC longshoremen is threatened by a notably repugnant co-worker.
12
The Jackal (1997)
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Director Michael Caton-Jones
Writer Kenneth Ross, Chuck Pfarrer
Cast Bruce Willis, Richard Gere, Sidney Poitier
Plot An imprisoned I.R.A. fighter is freed to help stop a brutal, seemingly "faceless" assassin from completing his next job.
13
Paris Blues (1961)
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Director Martin Ritt
Writer Jack Sher, Irene Kamp, Walter Bernstein
Cast Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, Sidney Poitier
Plot During the 1960s, two American expatriate jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls.
14
Duel at Diablo (1966)
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Director Ralph Nelson
Writer Marvin H. Albert, Michael M. Grilikhes
Cast James Garner, Sidney Poitier, Bibi Andersson
Plot In Apache territory, a supply Army column heads for the next fort, an ex-scout searches for the killer of his Indian wife, and a housewife abandons her husband in order to rejoin her Apache lover's tribe.
15
The Slender Thread (1965)
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Director Sydney Pollack
Writer Shana Alexander, Stirling Silliphant
Cast Sidney Poitier, Anne Bancroft, Telly Savalas
Plot College volunteer Alan Newell is working alone at the crisis center one evening when he receives a telephone call from suicidal caller Inga Dyson, who has swallowed a bottle of sleeping pills. Can Alan save her?
16
Pressure Point (1962)
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Director Hubert Cornfield
Writer Hubert Cornfield, S. Lee Pogostin, Robert M. Lindner
Cast Sidney Poitier, Bobby Darin, Peter Falk
Plot A Black prison psychiatrist is assigned the distasteful task of helping a paranoid American Nazi charged with sedition.
17
Band of Angels (1957)
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Director Raoul Walsh
Writer Robert Penn Warren, John Twist, Ivan Goff
Cast Clark Gable, Yvonne De Carlo, Sidney Poitier
Plot Amantha Starr grows up as a privileged Southern belle in the ante-bellum South, but after her father dies broke, her world is destroyed when she discovers that her mother was Black.
18
Porgy and Bess (1959)
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Director Otto Preminger, Rouben Mamoulian
Writer Dorothy Heyward, DuBose Heyward, N. Richard Nash
Cast Sidney Poitier, Dorothy Dandridge, Sammy Davis Jr.
Plot A woman whose past is scorned by nearly everyone around her meets a man who'd love her regardlessly- if only everyone else would allow them to.
19
The Long Ships (1964)
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Director Jack Cardiff
Writer Berkely Mather, Beverley Cross, Frans G. Bengtsson
Cast Richard Widmark, Sidney Poitier, Russ Tamblyn
Plot A vagabond Viking adventurer and a Moor both compete to find "The Mother of All Voices", a legendary golden bell near the Pillars of Hercules.
20
Little Nikita (1988)
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Director Richard Benjamin
Writer John Hill, Bo Goldman, Tom Musca
Cast Sidney Poitier, River Phoenix, Richard Jenkins
Plot An F.B.I. Agent works to uncover an All-American family as Soviet sleeper Agents, and gets caught up in friendship with their unaware son.
21
Let's Do It Again (1975)
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Director Sidney Poitier
Writer Richard Wesley, Timothy March
Cast Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Calvin Lockhart
Plot Two Atlanta men raise funds for their charity by rigging boxing matches in New Orleans, but their tricks attract the mob's attention.
