R.I.P. pioneering actress Cicely Tyson
Cicely Tyson, the pioneering and award-winning actress whose fierce spirit illuminated both the screen and the stage, died on Thursday. Per Variety, her manager, Larry Thompson, confirmed her passing in a statement: “I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing. Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.” As of now, a cause of death has not been disclosed. She was 96 years old.
A proud Harlemite, Tyson first entered the cultural zeitgeist as a popular fashion model after getting discovered by an Ebony magazine photographer. With a dazzling smile and an unforgettable brand of charisma, it wasn’t long before she pivoted to acting. “Well, it happened because I learned that I could speak through other people,” Tyson very recently told NPR. “I was a very shy child. I was an observer. I would sit and observe and listen and watch people’s actions in order to understand what they were. I wanted to know what prompted them to say and do the things that they did.” She landed her first TV role in NBC’s Frontiers of Faith in 1951. Her first film role would arrive 6 years later with Carib Gold. The burgeoning actress really proved to be an unmitigated force in the 1960s, landing screen role after screen role until she nabbed a starring bid in the CBS series East Side/West Side, where she became the first Black actor to star in a television drama. Tyson was soon a household name, a scene stealer, and a trusted counterpart to some of the most celebrated performers in entertainment, including Sammy Davis Jr. in the film A Man Called Adam.
In the ‘70s, Tyson’s work began to garner the attention of the Academy, the Golden Globes, and the Emmys. In 1973, Sounder—the critically lauded dramatic film adaptation where she starred as Rebecca Morgan—earned Tyson her only Oscar and Golden Globe nominations. (She was, however, given an Honorary Academy Award in 2018.) Just a year later, she won two major Emmys for her titular role in the made-for-TV movie The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman. If there was a story about critical moments in Black history—Roots, King, The Marva Collins Story—Tyson was at the forefront, distilling her natural gravitas and poise into every script.