Hollywood lost one of the greats when Sidney Poitier passed away. The legendary actor, who was the first Black man to win the best actor Oscar and whose Hollywood career spans over seven decades, was 94 years old.
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Everyone talks about how great of an actor Sidney Poitier was (which he really was) but as we remember him we are also celebrating how great of a director he was. Check out the nine movies Sidney Poitier directed plus where to stream them.
A Piece of the Action
Two con men (Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby) are persuaded by a retired policeman (James Earl Jones) to volunteer their services to a ghetto youth center.
Stream: Rent or own VOD
Let’s Do It Again
Milkman Clyde Williams (Sidney Poitier) and his best friend, Billy Foster (Bill Cosby), are members of a fraternal lodge, The Brothers and Sisters of Shaka, that needs money for the retirement home they sponsor. Since Clyde has a gift for hypnotism, they decide to fix an upcoming boxing match by hypnotizing the underdog fighter (Jimmie Walker). The scam works, and the men collect big winnings before a couple of mafia dons realize they’ve been tricked and decide to track Clyde and Billy down.
Stream: Amazon
Fast Forward
Dreaming of making it big, a group of high-school students from Ohio treks to New York City to become dancers. They include Matt (John Scott Clough), Michael (Don Franklin) and June (Tamara Mark), and they arrive in the big city unaware of the upcoming challenges. First, they find out that their dance routines are terribly dated. Then, they meet numerous locals who don’t like out-of-towners trying to impinge on their turf. The kids prepare for a dance competition that will settle it all.
Stream: Rent or own VOD
Uptown Saturday Night
While enjoying themselves at Madame Zenobia’s club on Saturday night, Steve Jackson (Sidney Poitier) and Wardell Franklin (Bill Cosby) are held up by robbers who raid the club and steal Steve’s wallet. When they realize that a winning lottery ticket worth $50,000 is in the wallet, Steve and Wardell set out to find the crooks themselves with the help of gangster Geechie Dan Beauford (Harry Belefonte), who wants to defeat his rival Silky Slim (Calvin Lockhart). Steve and Wardell devise a plan to recover the ticket.
Stream: Rent or own VOD
Ghost Dad
Elliot Hopper (Bill Cosby) is a widowed single dad who is utterly fixated on his family’s financial well-being. He spends all his time working to secure a crucial business deal that would put his accounts in the black. However, this leaves his three children pining for his attention. After a fatal car accident, Hopper — now a ghost — must clinch the deal from the afterlife to secure his children’s futures. Along the way, he discovers all the bonding he’d been missing when he was alive.
Stream: Rent or own VOD
Buck and the Preacher
Following the end of the Civil War, soldier-turned-trail-guide Buck (Sidney Poitier) makes a living by helping former slaves find settlements in the West. Along the way, a con artist, the Preacher (Harry Belafonte), joins the group, and constantly clashes with Buck. But when a gang of bounty hunters, led by the fiendish Deshay (Cameron Mitchell), attempts to round up the freed slaves to bring them back to Louisiana, the two put aside their differences to fight a common enemy.
Stream: Starz, Hulu, Sling TV, Roku, Amazon, Philo
A Warm December
On a trip to London with his daughter (Yvette Curtis) for some dirt-bike races, Dr. Matt Younger (Sidney Poitier) meets beautiful dignitary Catherine Oswandu (Esther Anderson) and quickly falls for her. But something is amiss — strange men seem to be following her wherever she goes, and Younger assumes she’s at the center of some political intrigue. His heart sinks when he learns that she has sickle cell anemia, and the men are watchdogs in the employ of her anxious father (Earl Cameron).
Stream: Rent or own VOD
Stir Crazy
With a jailbreak offering them their only way out, a despondent duo rack their brains to figure out a foolproof plan. Fortuitously, one of them discovers an unexpected talent as a rodeo rider, and an escape plan begins to take shape at the annual prisoners’ rodeo.
Stream: Starz, Hulu, Sling TV, Roku, Amazon, Philo
Hanky Panky
In New York City, architect Michael (Gene Wilder) takes a cab with stranger Sara (Kathleen Quinlan) and is talked into mailing a package for her. But Michael doesn’t know the package contains secret military documents, and, when Sara is murdered, he becomes a suspect, pursued by cops and government man Ransom (Richard Widmark). On the run, he meets Kate (Gilda Radner), whose brother’s death was somehow connected to the package. She helps him evades the cops, but Ransom is harder to shake.
Stream: Stream: Rent or own VOD