Sidney Poitier's Widow Joanna Shares His 'Inspiring' Legacy — and Jaw-Dropping Pickup Line! — in New Book (Exclusive)

Joanna Poitier hopes the new tome will introduce young people to her late husband's trailblazing legacy

Sidney Poitier’s filmography speaks for itself. Over the course of his decades-long career, the Hollywood icon, who died in 2022 at the age of 94, starred in classics like A Raisin in the Sun, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, To Sir, with Love and In the Heat of the Night, just to name a few.

But far from being merely an acclaimed actor, Poitier was also a trailblazer, breaking down barriers for Black performers in the movie business. In 1963, his performance in Lilies of the Field earned him his second Academy Award nomination and his win that year made him the first Black man ever to take home an Oscar for Best Actor.

It should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the man and his work that Poitier was also a gifted orator who wrote many of the speeches he gave over the years at commencement addresses, memorials, awards shows and other occasions. A new book, Sidney Poitier: The Great Speeches of an Icon Who Moved Us Forward, out Oct. 1 from Running Press, collects many of those speeches.

Poitier’s widow, Joanna Poitier, compiled the material collected in the book, which she hopes will introduce a new generation to her late husband’s legacy.

“I just think that it’s something that hopefully young people will read and get some inspiration from,” Joanna tells PEOPLE. “We older people all know all about Sidney, but young people really don’t. So, I do hope that they pick it up and read it and are inspired, because he was a very inspiring, special man.”

After Poitier’s death in 2022, Joanna explains, she found a drawer full of his speeches while cleaning up his office. “I started reading them and I thought, you know, they’re all of his thoughts and observations on life and people,” she says. “And I thought maybe we should share them.”

“Reading all of them, I thought, ‘This is a waste if I don’t do something about it,’ ” she adds. “It was too good to waste.”

Related: Sidney Poitier: Where to Stream 19 of the Late Actor's Most Iconic Films

The book is divided into sections based around the themes of Poitier’s many speeches, which include musings on art, civil rights and the struggle for equality, memorials for friends and peers, advice for the next generation and tributes to some of Black Hollywood’s most influential voices.

Joanna says she finds Poitier’s words about friends like Quincy Jones and Denzel Washington particularly impactful. “All of his speeches directed towards friends were loving and caring and nurturing,” she says. “The people he was speaking about, they usually ended up being a little tearful or, you know, happy.”

Along with a forward by Oprah Winfrey, the book includes a note from Joanna herself, excerpted below, in which she looks back on her 50-plus-year relationship with Poitier as well as his own life and legacy.

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A Note From Joanna Poitier

The first time I saw Sidney in person, I had been asked by a film director to fly to Los Angeles and meet the leading man of his upcoming movie — “the great Sidney Poitier.” When I met him, I recall he was wearing a pale blue suit with an ascot. I wasn’t sure what to make of that. But he was very sweet, we had lunch and talked, and though I had made it clear I wasn’t interested in doing a screen test, the producers liked me and I got the job.

The next time I saw him was in Paris, where I had been living and working for several years. At the time I was engaged to an Englishman, so when Sidney showed up that summer, we simply spent time together as friends. He asked me to take him to the Louvre, but when I arrived at his hotel, La Trémoille, I found him still in his pajamas. Maybe he wasn’t the best at first impressions. He explained that he had overslept and invited me into his room to have lunch. I stayed, and we talked and talked. As I was leaving, he asked, “Did anyone ever say you have childbearing hips?” I thought, No, thank you. (That’s the worst thing you can say to a woman.) But we wound up going to the Louvre the next day.

It wasn’t until the filming of The Lost Man in Philadelphia that fall that I knew he was the one — and we were together for over fifty years.

Related: Sidney Poitier's Incredible Life and Career in Photos

Sidney was really an amazing person, and the most interesting and intellectual man that I’ve ever known — and I’ve known quite a few. He was a freak about the cosmos, and he and Carl Sagan had a very nice relationship. Sidney was so intelligent, especially knowing that he only had two or three years of schooling and was totally self-taught. He was a special, unique guy. I don’t know why he picked me.

He was also prolific in his writing, an amazing thinker and speaker. In the last few years, I have been going through his many speeches. They are inspiring and full of wisdom, and I think other people should be able to enjoy them, too.

Reading through his words, it becomes clear that the most important thing for Sidney — beyond his family — was education. What he wanted most in life was for his children to be educated, probably because he never really had a formal education himself. He set up a trust for his daughters to go to college, and of course he publicly supported the great work of organizations like the United Negro College Fund and the Fulfillment Fund.

Sidney had the most soothing, relaxing, loving voice. He spoke very deliberately — a result of mimicking radio hosts when he was trying to break into acting in New York. His tone was so unique, not a typical American accent, not really Bahamian. Although we lived in the Bahamas for several years after we were married, I never heard his original accent. I never heard him raise his voice either, even with the children, and I know that he and I never really had any arguments.

Today I feel protective of Sidney’s legacy, in part because he was very protective of it and very particular about doing any project. He would never do something just for the money — commercials, sponsorships, whatever. He wasn’t interested in making a ton of money. But he would agree to work on a film if he was impressed with the filmmaker’s work. In this way he was a very simple, genuine, honest human being. And very caring of everybody.

In short, he was the most wonderful man I have ever known — who was also the best father, most loving husband, and my best friend.

Sidney — I will always love you, beyond forever.

Your Joanna

Excerpted from Sidney Poitier: The Great Speeches of an Icon Who Moved Us Forward by Sidney Poitier and Joanna Poitier, copyright © 2024 by Sidney Poitier, compiled by Joanna Poitier, with permission from Running Press, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc., New York, NY. All rights reserved.

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