Cicely Tyson

Cecily Louise "Cicely" Tyson (; December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career spanning seven decades, she portrayed complex and strong-willed African American women. She received several awards including three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award. She was awarded the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and the Honorary Academy Award in 2018.

Tyson garnered widespread attention and critical acclaim for her performance as a Black mother facing adversity in the dramatic film Sounder (1972), for which she was nominated for both the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama. She also acted in films such as A Man Called Adam (1966), The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), The River Niger (1976), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), Because of Winn-Dixie (2005), The Help (2011) and Last Flag Flying (2017).

On television, she broke barriers by taking a regular role on the CBS drama series East Side West Side (1963–1964). She won two Primetime Emmy Awards, her first for Best Lead Actress in a Drama for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), and her second for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or Movie for Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994). She was Emmy-nominated for her roles in Roots (1977), King (1978), Sweet Justice (1995), A Lesson Before Dying (1999), The Trip to Bountiful (2013) and How to Get Away With Murder (2015–2020).

In addition to her screen career, Tyson starred on Broadway. She made her debut in the Lonnie Coleman play Jolly's Progress (1959), followed by Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright (1962), Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights (1968) and The Corn Is Green (1983). At age 88, she became the oldest winner for the Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her role in the revival of the Horton Foote play The Trip to Bountiful (2013). She made her final Broadway appearance starring in the revival of The Gin Game (2016), opposite James Earl Jones.

Early life

Tyson was born on December 19, 1924, in the Bronx, New York City, but soon relocated with her family to East Harlem. She was one of three children born to Fredericka (Huggins) Tyson, a domestic worker, and William Augustine Tyson, who worked as a carpenter and painter. Her parents were immigrants from Nevis in the West Indies. Her father arrived in New York City at age 21 and was processed at Ellis Island on August 4, 1919.

Tyson grew up in a religious atmosphere. She sang in the choir and attended prayer meetings at an Episcopal church in East Harlem. Tyson's mother was opposed to her becoming an actress and would not speak to her for a time. She changed her mind when she saw Cicely appear on stage.

Tyson would study acting under Lee Strasberg.

Career

1956–1969: Rise to prominence

Tyson was discovered by a photographer for Ebony magazine and became a successful fashion model. Her first acting role was a bit part in the 1956 film Carib Gold and she first appeared onstage in Vinnette Carroll's production of Dark of the Moon at the Harlem YMCA in 1958. Tyson had small roles in the 1959 films Odds Against Tomorrow and The Last Angry Man, as well as the 1960 comedy, Who Was That Lady? In 1961, she made her television debut in the NBC series Frontiers of Faith. In 1962, she became the first African American woman to wear an Afro on television in the United States.

In the early 1960s, Tyson appeared in the original cast of French playwright Jean Genet's The Blacks. She played the role of Stephanie Virtue Secret-Rose Diop; other cast members included Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, Godfrey Cambridge, Louis Gossett Jr., and Charles Gordone. The show was the longest running off-Broadway non-musical of the decade, running for 1,408 performances. She won the 1961–1962 Vernon Rice Award (later known as the Drama Desk Award) for her performance in another off-Broadway production, Moon on a Rainbow Shawl. In 1963, Tyson appeared on the game show To Tell The Truth as an "imposter" for Australian singer Shirley Abicair, receiving two of the four possible votes.

Tyson, who once worked for a social services agency, was spotted by producer David Susskind in The Blacks and in Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright, and was cast for a role in the CBS TV series East Side/West Side (1963–1964), playing the secretary of a social worker played by George C. Scott. She was at the time the only African-American regular member of a TV cast, The show was noted for its treatment of social issues, and one of its episodes, on an African-American couple in Harlem (played by James Earl Jones and Diana Sands), was blacked out in Atlanta and Shreveport, Louisiana. In the mid-1960s she had a recurring role in the soap opera The Guiding Light. She appeared with Sammy Davis Jr. in the film A Man Called Adam (1966) and had a small role in the film version of The Comedians (1967) based on the Graham Greene novel. In 1968 Tyson had a featured role in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.

1970–1989: Stardom and acclaim

In 1972, Tyson played the role of Rebecca Morgan in the film Sounder. She was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work in Sounder, and also won the NSFC Best Actress and NBR Best Actress Awards. Critic Roger Ebert wrote of her performance, "The mother is played by Cicely Tyson, and it is a wonder to see the subtleties in her performance. We have seen her with her family, and we know her strength and intelligence. Then we see her dealing with the white power structure, and her behavior toward it is in a style born of cynicism and necessity. She will say what they want to hear in order to get what she wants to get."

In 1974, Tyson played the title role in the CBS television film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Tyson's portrayal of a centenarian black woman's life from slavery until her death before the Civil rights movement won her Emmy Awards Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie and Actress of the Year – Special. Tyson was also nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her work in this television film. Nikki Giovanni of The New York Times wrote of her performance, "If Cicely Tyson isn't one of the best actresses on screen, then "grits ain't groceries, eggs ain't poultry, and Mona Lisa was a man," adding, "Miss Tyson never stepped out of character. Miss Tyson's performance was the reason awards were first invented."

Tyson's television roles included: Binta in the 1977 miniseries Roots, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actress – Miniseries or a Movie; Coretta Scott King in the 1978 miniseries King, for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie; Marva Collins in the 1981 television film The Marva Collins Story, for which she received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special and was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie; and Muriel in the 1986 television film Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story, for which she received an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actress in a Television Movie, Mini-Series or Dramatic Special. Tyson was the first black woman to host Saturday Night Live. Her episode featured the musical guest Talking Heads and aired on February 10, 1979. In 1989, Tyson appeared in the television miniseries The Women of Brewster Place.

1990–2021: Established star

In 1991, Tyson appeared in Fried Green Tomatoes as Sipsey. In the 1994–95 television series Sweet Justice, Tyson portrayed a civil rights activist and attorney named Carrie Grace Battle, a character she modeled after Dovey Johnson Roundtree. Her other film roles include the dramas Hoodlum (1997) and Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005), and the television films Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994) (for which she received her third Emmy Award) and A Lesson Before Dying (1999). In 2005, Tyson co-starred in Because of Winn-Dixie.

In 2010, Tyson appeared in Why Did I Get Married Too? and narrated the Paul Robeson Award-winning documentary Up from the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream. In 2011, Tyson appeared in her first music video in Willow Smith's 21st Century Girl. That same year, she played Constantine Jefferson, a maid in Jackson, Mississippi, in the critically acclaimed period drama The Help. Set in the backdrop of the Civil Rights Movement, the film won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award for Best Acting Ensemble and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.