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Emmy and Tony award-winning actress Cicely Tyson, who has excelled in theater, film and television, died Thursday afternoon. She was 96 years old.
“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year has been a privilege and a blessing,” her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement. “Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the adornments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a star, at the top of the tree.
Tyson made his film debut with a small role in the 1957 “Twelve Angry Men” and his official debut in the 1959 Sidney Poitier film “Odds Against Tomorrow”, followed by “The Comedians”, “The Last Angry Man” , “A Man Called”. Adam ”and“ The heart is a lonely hunter ”. Refusing to participate in the blaxploitation films that became popular in the late 1960s, she waited until 1972 to return to the screen in the drama “Sounder,” which won several Oscar nominations including one for Tyson as best actress.
Tyson received an Oscar nomination in 1973 for Martin Ritt’s drama “Sounder” and an Honorary Oscar in 2018.
Variety Critic AD Murphy enthusiastically said the film was “exceptional” and added, “The performances of Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson as devoted but poor parents are milestones in their own careers.”
Despite her achievements on stage and in films, however, much of the actress’ best work was done for television. In addition to “Miss Jane Pittman”, she has done outstanding work in “Roots”, “The Wilma Rudolph Story”, “King: The Martin Luther King Story”, “When No One would Listen”, “A Woman Called Moses “The Story of Marva Collins”, “The Women of Brewster Place,” “The Oldest All-Telling Confederate Widow” and the TV adaptation of “Trip to Bountiful.”
Throughout her career, Tyson refused to play drug addicts, prostitutes, or maids, roles she found degrading to black women. But when a good part arrived, she grabbed it tenaciously.
On stage, she was in the original 1961 Off Broadway production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” and, decades later, she won a Tony for her lead role in a cover of “The Trip to Bountiful.”
On television, she landed the recurring first role of a black woman in a drama series, “East Side / West Side,” and the actress later won two well-deserved Emmys for the memorable “Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” by 1974. She was nominated a total of 16 times in her career, also a winner for Supporting Actress, in 1994 for an adaptation of “The Oldest Confederate Widow That Tells Everything”; she has been nominated five times as a guest actress in a drama for “How to get away with a murder”.
The actress has become a household name thanks to her starring role in “Miss Jane Pittman”. The TV movie, in which a 110-year-old woman remembers her life, required her to portray the heroine over a period of nine decades. Writing on Tyson’s performance, Pauline Kael compared it “to the highest, because it is the comparison that she invites and that she deserves”.
She also remained an occasional big screen presence in films such as “A Hero Ain’t Nothin ‘But a Sandwich”, Richard Pryor’s comedy “Bustin’ Loose”, “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Hoodlum”.
Tyson returned to Broadway in 1983 to star in a brief cover of “The Corn Is Green”.
On television, she also appeared in the title role of “Ms. Scrooge ”, a genre-reversed adaptation of Charles Dickens, as well as telepics like“ Benny’s Place ”,“ Playing With Fire ”,“ Acceptable Risks ”,“ Heat Wave ”,“ Duplicates ”,“ A Lesson Before Dying ”and “The story of Rosa Parks. “
In 1994-95, she played a Southern lawyer in NBC’s short civil rights-themed legal drama “Sweet Justice”, and she appeared in a 2009 episode of “Law and Order: SVU”.
In her 70s, Tyson worked more in film than at any time in her career, in part thanks to Tyler Perry: she appeared in his films “Diary of a Mad Black Woman” (2005), “Madea’s Family Reunion (2006) and “Why did I get married too?” (2010) as well as in Perry 2012 star “Alex Cross”, which he did not direct. The actress also had supporting roles in “Because of Winn-Dixie”, “Fat Rose and Squeaky”, “Idlewild” and “The Help” in 2011.
And to cap an already impressive career, Tyson won the Tony for Best Actress for her role as Carrie Watts in the 2013 revival of “A Trip to Bountiful,” then repeated the performance in a Lifetime TV adaptation in 2014.
Born in East Harlem to West Indian immigrant parents, Tyson grew from humble beginnings. After graduating from high school, she worked as a secretary for the American Red Cross before becoming a model; at the top of her game, she appeared in Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. She studied at the Actors Studio and with Lloyd Richards and Vinnette Carroll, who featured Tyson as Barbara Allen in a 1959 Off Broadway cover of the musical “The Dark of the Moon”. She followed up on the Broadway variety show “Talent ’59” and appeared in a “Jolly’s Progress” production in which she also under-researched Eartha Kitt, before a role in “The Blacks” triggered. his career on stage.
In 1961, Tyson was one of the original cast members in “The Blacks,” which ran for two years at St. Mark’s Playhouse. His co-stars included Roscoe Lee Browne, James Earl Jones, Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques. The role of Virtue earned her the Vernon Rice Award, a feat she repeated for the 1962 production of “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl.” She starred with Diana Sands in the 1963 Broadway production of “Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright,” which closed during a newspaper strike, and later that year appeared Off Broadway in “The Blue Boy in Black” with Billy Dee Williams. She moved on to Carroll’s musical “Trumpets of the Lord” (she also appeared in the Broadway director in 1968) as well as the 1966 production “A Hand Is at the Gate”, the play by 1968 “Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights” and Lorraine Hansberry’s 1969 program reads “Being Young, Gifted, and Black”.
Tyson was also a founding member of the Harlem Dance Theater in 1969.
Interspersed with her live gigs, Tyson has appeared in a number of television shows, including a dramatic presentation of “Brown Girl, Brown Stones” in 1960 and “Between Yesterday and Today.” “East Side / West Side” star George C. Scott, having been impressed with his performance on “The Blacks”, asked him to play his assistant on the CBS series of 1963. Although the show did not last as 26 episodes, she increased her visibility and followed her with appearances on shows such as “Naked City”, “The Nurses”, “I Spy”, “Slattery’s People” and “The Bill Cosby Show”.
Tyson was active in charitable and arts organizations including Urban Gateways, the Human Family Institute, and the American Film Institute. She has received awards from the National Council of Black Women and the NAACP as well as the Capitol Press Award.
The actress was one of 25 black women honored for their contributions to art, entertainment and civil rights at the 2005 Oprah Winfrey Ball of Legends.
Tyson remained brave even when she turned 90. She criticized an upcoming remake of “Roots” as unnecessary and, in a speech at the Grace Awards, where Tyson received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Alliance for Women in Media in May 2015, the actress recounted when she was asked, “Now that you’ve done it, what else are you going to do?” to which she replied: “Honey, the day I feel like I ‘ve done, I’ m finished. “
Tyson was married to jazz great Miles Davis from 1981 to 1988.
Survivors include her niece, British actress Cathy Tyson.
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