LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Rod Steiger brought out the best in his co-stars, so much so that frequent collaborator Norman Jewison tried to fit the stocky actor into all his movies. ``I always tried to put him ...
African-American Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier) is arrested on suspicion of murder by Bill Gillespie (Rod Steiger), the racist police chief of tiny Sparta, Mississippi.