CNN Anderson Cooper 360 January 8, 2022 02:53:00
Appeared, not because i brought so much but because the time was right. >> reporter: but his career almost ended before it ever began. as a teenager, poitier auditioned for the negro theater but thrown out because he couldn't read, tone deaf and had a thick acre cent. >> reporter: he would spend months perfecting his acting skills and modifying his speaking voice. his hard work would pay off in a big way. >> i was right. i know i was right. >> reporter: in the 1950s a appeared in more than a dozen films beginning with "no way out" and "defiant ones" but the prior portrayal of a g.i. in "lilies...
Source: archive.org