Cicely Tyson, the award-winning actress who made her way in several decades and appeared on countless TV shows, films and Broadway plays, died Thursday at 96, according to her manager. Tyson’s role as the wife of a sharecropper in the movie “Sounder” earned him an Oscar nomination in 1973.
“With a heavy heart, Ms. Cicely Tyson’s family announces her peaceful transition this afternoon,” Tyson’s family said in a statement from their manager. “At this point, please allow the family to have privacy.”
Tyson, who first came into the spotlight as a model, was well known in the entertainment industry, winning two Emmy awards – best lead actress in drama and best actress in particular – for her role as a former slave in the 1974 TV drama ” The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. ” At a decisive moment in the film, Pittman approaches and drinks from the exclusive drinker for whites.
“Well, when I’m working, I just tell everyone. I said, ‘I don’t care what you see. Please don’t tell me about it … because I work so organically,” said Tyson. “Then, the next day, when I entered the set, I knew something had happened. And I just said, ‘Please don’t tell me. I don’t want to know …’ and people were talking about the walk. I said, ‘ What walk? ‘ “
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In 1994, she won an Emmy for supporting actress for her role in “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” and a Tony Award in 2013, at the age of 88, for best lead actress in the play “The Trip to Bountiful”. She starred alongside Vanessa Williams, who was inspired by Tyson’s work ethic, according to a 2015 interview.
“She never missed a performance … There is no excuse for not showing up when Cicely Tyson can show up every day,” Williams said at the time about Tyson.
Tyson was among a group of 21 actors, musicians, athletes and innovators in 2016 who received the Presidential Medal of Freedom – the country’s largest civilian tribute – from former President Obama.
“In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson not only succeeded as an actress, she shaped the entire course of history,” Obama said in the presentation, via ETonline. “Cicely was never the most likely of Hollywood stars. Daughter of immigrants from the West Indies, she was raised by a working and religious mother who cleaned houses and forbade her children from going to the movies. But as soon as she studied and went into business, Cicely made a conscious decision not just to say lines, but to speak. “
Also in 2016, Tyson was celebrated with a Kennedy Center Honor for their contributions to American culture, paving the way for African Americans in the industry.
In 2018, she was awarded an honorary Oscar statuette at the annual Governors Awards, according to The Associated Press. “I come from a humble condition. I grew up in an area that at the time was called slums, ”said Tyson at the time. “I still can’t imagine that I met presidents, kings, queens. How did I get here? I’m amazed by this.”
In 2020, Tyson was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame and received the Career Achievement Peabody Award.
Her memoir, “Just As I Am”, was released on January 26, the same day that “CBS This Morning” aired an interview between the iconic actress and Gayle King, where Tyson was able to reflect on his roles.
“Whenever they offer me a script … what interests me when I get it is ‘why me?’”, She said. “Who was this character and why did they want me to play … and when I get to the point where I feel that her skin has adjusted to my arm or my mind, then I know there is something about her.”
Born in 1924, the daughter of Indian parents, Tyson said she was a very shy child, the youngest of three. AP said his parents had moved from the island of Nevis in the Caribbean to New York’s East Harlem neighborhood. At a young age, his friends encouraged Tyson to start modeling because of his impressive appearance.
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The journey to stardom, as she told Gayle King, was not an easy one. Tyson became pregnant when she was 17 and had a short marriage that lasted just over two years. Her decision to start an acting career as a single mother led to conflicts at home, including her mother throwing her out of the house.
“Oh, she told me that I couldn’t live there and do that,” said Tyson. “Suddenly, I discovered something I loved to do. And I had a son to support.”
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Tyson made his on-screen debut at the age of 31 in the 1956 black and white film “Carib Gold”. Out of sheer determination, his career flourished after taking on the lead role of playing a sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder” – the 1972 film based on the novel by William H. Hunter. Her character was arrested for stealing a piece of food for the farmer’s family and was forced to care for her children and to take care of the plantation.
At the time, a review by The New York Times said: “She lets go of all her easy beauty to finally give us a sense of the profound beauty of millions of black women.”
In Tyson’s memoirs, she talks about her love story with the great jazz Miles Davis, who put her on the cover of her 1967 album, “Sorcerer”. The two married in 1981, but divorced less than seven years later. However, their romance lasted for decades. Tyson told King that she was never able to find love like that again.
At 96, King asked Tyson what it’s like to be considered a legend.
“I am surprised every day I live,” she said. “I mean, what my life has become is not what I expected … I had no idea that I would touch anyone.”
When King asked Tyson, “When the time comes, what do you want us to remember about you?”
She replied, “I did my best. That’s all.”
The Associated Press and ETonline contributed to this report.