Sidney was offered the lead in this independent film about a devil-may-care young black man who is drawn to a grounded young woman in the deep south but recommended his friend, Ivan Dixon, instead.

Barbra Streisand wanted Poitier as her co-star in the comedy, but studio bosses were nervous that audiences wouldn't accept an interracial couple.

Director Sam Peckinpah considered him for the leading role in his enormously controversial, influential movie.