NEW YORK (AP) – Cicely Tyson, the pioneer black actress who won an Oscar nomination for her role as a sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder”, a Tony award in 2013 at the age of 88 and touched the hearts of viewers in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman ”, died Thursday at age 96.
Tyson’s death was announced by his family, through his manager Larry Thompson, who did not immediately provide additional details.
“With a heavy heart, Miss. Cicely Tyson announces his peaceful transition this afternoon. Right now, allow the family to have privacy, ”according to a statement issued by Thompson.
A former model, Tyson started his screen career with small roles, but gained fame in the early 1970s, when black women were finally starting to land leading roles. In addition to her Oscar nomination, she won two Emmy Awards for playing the 110-year-old ex-slave in the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”.
Tyson’s memoir, “Just As I Am”, was published this week.
“I am very selective, as I have done my entire career on what I do. Unfortunately, I’m not the type of person who works only for money. There has to be some real substance for me to do that, ”she told the Associated Press in 2013.
In addition to her Oscar nomination, she won two Emmys for playing the 110-year-old ex-slave in the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”. A new generation of viewers saw her in the 2011 hit “The Help”. In 2018, she received an honorary Oscar statuette at the annual Governors Awards. “This is the culmination of all those years of rich and poor,” said Tyson.
She was one of the winners of the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s largest civilian tribute. At the ceremony, President Barack Obama said, “Cicely’s convictions and grace helped us to see the dignity of every beautiful memory of the American family.”
“Sounder”, based on the novel by William H. Hunter, was the film that confirmed his stardom in 1972. Tyson was cast as the loving wife of the Depression era of a sharecropper (Paul Winfield) who is confined in prison for stealing a piece of meat for your family. She is forced to take care of her children and to take care of the plantation.
The New York Times critic wrote: “She lets go of all her easy beauty to finally give us some sense of the profound beauty of millions of black women.” Tyson won an Oscar nomination for best actress in 1972.
In an interview with cable channel Turner Classic Movies, she recalled that she was asked to audition for a minor role in the film and said she wanted to play her mother, Rebecca. They said to her, “You are very young, very beautiful, very sexy, very much, very much, and I said, ‘I am an actress'”.
In 2013, at age 88, Tyson won Tony for best lead actress in a play for the revival of Horton Foote’s “The Trip to Bountiful”. It was the actress’s first time back on Broadway in three decades and she refused to meekly turn around when the teleprompter said to end her acceptance speech.
″ ‘Please wrap it’, he says. Well, this is exactly what you did to me: you wrapped me up in your arms after 30 years, ”she told the crowd.
Afterwards, she told the AP that she had not prepared any speech – “I think it’s presumptuous” – and that “I spent half my time thinking about what I was going to say”. She reprized her role in a film for television Lifetime, which was shown at the White House.
In the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman”, based on a novel by Ernest J. Gaines, Tyson is seen growing old from a 110-year-old slave girl campaigning for the 1960s civil rights movement.
At the moving climax, she laboriously walks over to a “white only” drinker and takes a sip while white officers watch.
“It is important that they see and hear the story from Miss Jane’s point of view,” Tyson told The New York Times. “And I think they will be more willing to accept that from her than from someone younger”
New York film critic Pauline Kael praised: “She is an actress, no doubt, and as obstinate and honorable in her methods as anyone we have.”
At the Emmy Awards, “Pittman” won several awards, including two honors for Tyson, best lead actress in a drama and best actress in a special.
“People ask me what I prefer to do – film, stage, television? I say, ‘I would have done “Jane Pittman” in the basement or in a store.’ It is the role that determines where I go, ”she told the AP.