×

Trailblazing Black US Actress Cicely Tyson Dies Aged 96

  Cicely Tyson, the pioneering African-American actress and honorary Oscar winner, died Thursday aged 96, her manager said. Advertisement Known best for Emmy-winning television movie … Continue reading Trailblazing Black US Actress Cicely Tyson Dies Aged 96


(FILES) In this file photo US actress Cicely Tyson speaks during the 47th American Film Institute (AFI) Life Achievement Award Gala at the Dolby theatre in Hollywood on June 6, 2019. – Cicely Tyson, the pioneering African-American actress and honorary Oscar winner, died January 28 aged 96, her manager said. Known best for Emmy-winning television movie “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and her Academy-nominated turn in 1972 film “Sounder,” Tyson’s acting career spanned seven decades and frequently tackled issues of racism and social justice. (Photo by Jean-Baptiste LACROIX / AFP)
(FILES) In this file photo US actress and honoree Cicely Tyson attends the 10th Annual Governors Awards gala hosted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the the Dolby Theater at Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California on November 18, 2018. (Photo by VALERIE MACON / AFP)

 

Cicely Tyson, the pioneering African-American actress and honorary Oscar winner, died Thursday aged 96, her manager said.

Known best for Emmy-winning television movie “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and her Academy-nominated turn in 1972 film “Sounder,” Tyson’s acting career spanned seven decades and often tackled issues of racism and social justice.

She frequently turned down roles she saw as reinforcing negative Black stereotypes, including maids and prostitutes, and was seen as recently as last year on the small-screen thriller “How to Get Away with Murder.”

“With heavy heart, the family of Miss Cicely Tyson announces her peaceful transition this afternoon,” manager Larry Thompson said in a statement to AFP.

“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” Thompson wrote, without further details of the cause of death.

 

(FILES) In this file photo actress Cicely Tyson smiles as her hands imprint the cement during her Hand and Footprints Ceremony at the TCL Chinese Theater in Hollywood, California, on April 27, 2018.  (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN / AFP)

 

Tyson’s highly decorated career included multiple Emmys and a Tony in 2013 for “A Trip to Bountiful.”

Beside Depression-era drama adaptation “Sounder,” her other film credits include “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “The Help”.

In 2018, at the age of 93, Tyson was granted an honorary Oscar for her life-long work as an icon for two generations of African American actresses.

“She’s a queen to us, Afro-Americans,” the actor and producer Tyler Perry said at the glitzy Hollywood ceremony.

“She had to work ten times harder to be paid a hundred times less” because she was a black woman, Perry said.

 

(FILES) In this file photo US President Barack Obama presents actress Cicely Tyson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, during a ceremony honoring 21 recipients, in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, November 22, 2016. (Photo by Nicholas Kamm / AFP)

 

The composer Quincy Jones, in an emotional tribute, said Tyson “opened the door” for Black actresses from Angela Bassett to Lupita Nyong’o.

Born in New York’s Harlem to Caribbean immigrant parents, Tyson began her career as a model before turning to acting.

She won Emmys for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,” in which she played a 110-year-old woman in the Civil Rights Era reflecting on a life dating back to slavery times, and for “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.”

She played other legendary Black female historical figures, including Harriet Tubman and Coretta Scott King, the activist wife of Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Trailblazer is not a sufficient description. What a legendary artist, sage and matriarch. We salute her. Rest in power, Lady Cicely,” tweeted the Martin Luther King Jr Center on Thursday.

 

 

(FILES)  Known best for Emmy-winning television movie “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and her Academy-nominated turn in 1972 film “Sounder,” Tyson’s acting career spanned seven decades and frequently tackled issues of racism and social justice. (Photo by Jean-Baptiste LACROIX / AFP)

 

Tyson’s memoir, “Just as I Am: A Memoir” had just been published Tuesday.

“Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life,” wrote manager Thompson.

“Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.”