I exhaled deeply, almost stumbling as I exited the suite.Ībout two years later, I was doing a story on actor Robert Guillaume. He said nothing, but gave me the warmest of smiles. Poitier how much he meant to me and how I wished we could keep talking. I grabbed the recording and awkwardly attempted to tell Mr. Our conversation had lasted about 40 minutes, but it seemed that only a few moments had passed.
When the PBS publicist came over to announce that our time was up, my eyes widened. I silently prayed that it wasn’t malfunctioning. I got close to the mark.’”Īs he spoke, I resisted the temptation to look to see if my tape recorder was working. He said he was pleased with moments in “The Defiant Ones,” “A Raisin in the Sun,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “A Warm December.” Then he slowly smiled: “And ‘A Piece of the Action.’ I remember seeing that again not along ago. Poitier took a while when I asked him to name his favorite performance or movie. Finally, I said, ‘I’ll do it, for no one but you.’ She is a kindred soul.” I thought about it for quite a while, and she kept checking in. “I knew that as a director, she would know how to handle it. “I have known her for many years, and as an actress, she is just mesmerizing, very gifted,” he said. She pleaded with him for years, and he politely but consistently resisted.
It was that aversion to celebrity that made it so difficult for Grant to convince Poitier to participate in the project. But the scope of his work and concerns are now on record. Lee Grant’s ‘One Bright Light’ profile wasn’t an easy sell to the actor, who isn’t comfortable with the nature of celebrity. And what he represented as a Black artist who was so highly respected - who was truly Hollywood royalty - was immeasurable to me. He projected an admirable dignity and confidence that made his fans feel they were watching greatness in action. His amazing 1967 trifecta - “In the Heat of the Night,” “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” and “To Sir, with Love” - were must-sees, not only for Black moviegoers but for viewers of all colors.Īs a teen, my friends and I were first-weekenders for his films, especially his comedies with Bill Cosby: “Uptown Saturday Night,” “A Piece of the Action” and “Let’s Do It Again.”Īnd “brilliant actor” was far from the only line on Mr.
My awe of him was fueled by the impression he had made on me as a youngster watching “Lilies of the Field” on my parents’ black-and-white TV. Poitier twice - in 2000, during an interview about a documentary exploring his groundbreaking career, and a more informal encounter at a book signing a few years later.īoth times I was short of breath.
At times it can be disorienting, at others a letdown. Interviewing larger-than-life figures has always been daunting for me.
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