Sidney Poitier Presents Morgan Freeman with Lifetime Achievement Award at Golden Globes

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By Drishya Nair | January 16, 2012 6:06 PM EST

When Sir Sidney Poitier came onstage at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards on Sunday, it was apparent that even at 84, he knew how to command the attention of an audience; he was onstage to present another cinematic legend, Morgan Freeman, with a Lifetime Achievment Award.

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Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat, Sidney Poitier is considered the first black man to win an Academy Award when he received the gong in 1963 for his performance in "Lillies of the Field". It came five years after his first nomination for "The Defiant Ones". Poitier received an honorary Academy Award in 2002, the same year Denzel Washington and Halle Berry received the Best Actor and Actress awards in the leading role.

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"You infuse the characters you play with a real life aura," said Poitier to Freeman. "In my humble opinion, you are a prince in the profession you've chosen. Thank you for raising the level of excellence another notch. Welcome aboard Morgan Freeman. May your journey be long," he added, according to Hollywoodtoday.net

Sir Sidney Poitier is a Bahamian-American actor and film director, who in 1963, became the first black actor to win an Academy Award for Best Actor - for his role in "Lilies of the Field". He is also remembered for his role in "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", "To Sir With Love" and "Porgy and Bess". 

"Morgan Freeman has been in fifty films and I've only been in one of them, "Red"," Dame Helen Mirren, an English actress complained.

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"I can't really tell you how it feels to be up here being touted by a woman I love so much," said Morgan Freeman, referring to Mirren and then to Poitier, "Watching you handle a gun makes me realize I never want to piss you up. Mr. Poitier, although they call this the Cecile B. De Mille award, in my house they also call it the Sidney Poitier award."

The 69th Annual Golden Globe Awards were held on Jan. 15, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. 

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(Photo: Reuters/ Reuters Photographer / )
Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat, Sidney Poitier is considered the first black man to win an Academy Award when he received the gong in 1963 for his performance in "Lillies of the Field". It came five years after his first nomination for "The Defiant Ones". Poitier received an honorary Academy Award in 2002, the same year Denzel Washington and Halle Berry received the Best Actor and Actress awards in the leading role.
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