The Defiant Ones in 1958 was the consolidation. The film put him in a situation of sustained dramatic conflict with Tony Curtis — not a racially charged conflict in the sense of being about race explicitly, but a conflict between two men who had to overcome their contempt for each other in order to survive, whose survival was literally chained together by a piece of metal around their wrists. The allegory was unmistakable. The film was about what it would require for Black and white Americans to acknowledge their common humanity.
Poitier’s performance was nominated for Best Actor. He was thirty-one years old. He had been in professional theater and film for about twelve years. The nomination was a recognition of cumulative achievement as much as of the specific performance, though the specific performance was extraordinary.
He did not win. It was not his year. The Academy gave the award to David Niven for Separate Tables. These things happen.
What the nomination did was confirm Poitier’s position in the industry at a level that studios had to acknowledge. He was not a peripheral figure. He was not a specialty item for a niche audience. He was a serious actor who had received the Academy’s highest acting acknowledgment in the lead category, and that acknowledgment had to be factored into every conversation about what kinds of films he would be offered and on what terms.
The years between the 1958 nomination and the 1964 win included A Raisin in the Sun and Lilies of the Field, but they included much else — less celebrated films, films that tried his patience with material that was beneath his capability, films that the studios wanted from him because his name was now a bankable commodity and studios in that era, as in every era, were primarily interested in commercial reliability rather than artistic growth.