Which 1967 Best Picture winner stars Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs?

The 1967 Best Picture winner starring Sidney Poitier as Virgil Tibbs is In the Heat of the Night. Poitier plays a highly skilled Black police detective from Philadelphia who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a Mississippi town.

Directed by Norman Jewison, the film pairs Poitier with Rod Steiger, whose local police chief initially distrusts Tibbs. Their uneasy partnership drives the mystery while confronting racism, police prejudice, and the social tensions of the American South during the civil-rights era. The screenplay was adapted by Stirling Silliphant from John Ball’s 1965 novel.

The film won five Oscars at the 40th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Steiger. Poitier’s character is sometimes confused with the film’s title or with other Poitier roles, such as Homer Smith in Lilies of the Field. The phrase “They call me Mister Tibbs!” became one of the era’s best-known movie lines.