Sidney Poitier, writing in This Life about meeting Richard Brooks before the filming of The Blackboard Jungle But were those flashes of street survival instinct that dominated his personality in unexpected moments the real Richard Brooks, or were they a meticulously nurtured camouflage that a forceful personality had chosen in order to ward off, and forever frustrate, simple definitions of itself? Puzzlement. He was a strong, tough, agile man of about forty-two years who looked and dressed like a bum most of the time because he hated the codes of the front-office contingent.
Richard Brooks: The Professional Interview by Pat McGilligan
