Actress Cicely Tyson has passed away. No cause of death has been announced. She was 96.
In some ways, Tyson's career paralleled that of Cloris Leachman who passed away yesterday. Both of them reached stardom after they turned 40 and both remained busy into their 90's.
Tyson had more extensive experience on stage as she was part of the original cast of the off-Broadway play The Blacks alongside James Earl Jones, Maya Angelou, Godfrey Cambridge and Louis Gossett, Jr. She appeared in TV series such as The Naked City, I Spy, The F.B.I., The Courtship of Eddie's Father, Here Comes The Brides, Mission: Impossible, Gunsmoke and Emergency!. Tyson also had a recurring role on the critically acclaimed but short-lived TV series East Side/West Side starring George C. Scott.
She also appeared in films such as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter starring Alan Arkin and A Man Called Adam starring Sammy Davis, Jr. about a self-destructive jazz musician. No doubt this role hit home for her given her on again, off again liaison with Miles Davis. But her career would take off in 1972 when she received an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in Sounder alongside Paul Winfield, Taj Mahal and Kevin Hooks portraying black sharecroppers during the Great Depression.
Perhaps her crowning achievement was the 1974 TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman which depicts her from the age of 23 to 110. Tyson's performance would earn her two Emmy Awards. Tyson also appeared in the TV mini-series Roots and King in which she played Coretta Scott King. She would earn a third Emmy for her performance in the mini-series Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. In 2013, Tyson earned the distinction of becoming the eldest woman to win a Tony Award earning a Best Actress Award for The Trip to Bountiful.
Tyson also appeared in movies such as Because of Winn-Dixie, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion and The Help. Her final movie role was in A Fall From Grace which was released last year. Until last year, Tyson had a recurring role on the ABC TV series How to Get Away With Murder starring Viola Davis.
Two days ago, Tyson released her autobiography Just As I Am. Here is her final interview discussing the book with Gayle King on the CBS Morning News. R.I.P.
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