redfords: “Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to win a Best Actor Oscar on April 13
redfords: “Sidney Poitier became the first black actor to win a Best Actor Oscar on April 13, 1964. Poitier, who had anticipated Albert Finney to win, “leaped six feet” from his seat when Anne Bancroft called his name. The audience cheered, Bancroft jumped up and down, and in his excitement, Poitier forgot his speech. Upon receiving his Oscar from her, Poitier and Bancroft shared an embrace that upset the show’s backward audiences. Television critic Jack Gould later commented that, had the hug been scripted, “(it) would have been written out lest Southern sensibilities be disturbed.” -- source link