On 90th birthday, Sidney Poitier is oldest living Best Actor Oscar winner

When he turned 90, Sidney Poitier became the oldest living actor to have received the Oscar award for Best Actor.

Feb 21, 2017

Sidney Poitier won the Academy Award for Best Actor in a leading role on April 13, 1964, and as of Monday, Feb. 20, when he turned 90, he is the oldest living actor to have received the award.

When Poitier took home the award for his work in Lilies of the Field, he was also making history as the first black man to receive the award, and it was definitely well-deserved. The film also received nominations in four other categories but did not take home any of them.

Ernest Borgnine, who died in 2012, was previously the oldest living actor to have won the award before he died of renal failure. Borgnine won his Best Actor Oscar in 1955 for “Marty,” which also won Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay that year.