Although he was born in Miami, Poitier was raised in the Bahamas (via Biography) and retained his citizenship there. In the late 1960s, he would return to his home country to get away from the pressures of fame. Per WCVB, Poitier was reeling from a New York Times article that stated that he played “the same character in every movie.” In addition, the article bluntly expressed that he was “helping solve the white man’s problems.” The Academy of Achievement writes that while in the Bahamas, he supported the independence movement. Then a British colony, the Bahamas would become free of English rule in 1973 (per PBS).
However, the country remained (and still does) a member of the British Commonwealth. The Guardian reports that in 1974, Poitier was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II. Because he was both a Bahamian citizen and a U.S. resident, it was decided his knighthood would be “an honorary award” (via the BBC). Nonetheless, he was known as Sir Sidney Poitier in the British Commonwealth. He did not use the title in the United States. He would later serve as the Bahamian ambassador to Japan for a decade (via Rolling Stone). Sidney Poitier would retire from acting in 2000 and died on January 7, 2022 at the age of 94.
