Sidney Poitier – U.S. Army
At 93, Bahamian-American actor/author Sidney Poitier has a long list of career achievements to boast about. His role in the 1963 film Lilies of the Field made him the first black actor to take home a Best Actor win from the Academy Awards.
Poitier served as a mental hospital attendant, after enlisting in 1943. Poitier was 16 when he moved to New York, and at the time of joining, he lied about his age. However, Poitier didn’t like how the hospital handled its patients, and he feigned mental illness to get discharged from the army.
