The legendary Cicely Tyson has died at age 96
Another sad day, as another film and television legend, Cicely Tyson passed away at the age of 96. For more than seven decades, Tyson’s career, in which she started out as a fashion model for Ebony magazine, led to her becoming an Oscar nominee, an Emmy winner, a Tony winner, and a Peabody winner. She broke through in 1972’s Sounder, for which she was nominated for Best Actress, and then went on to star in the 1974 TV film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, for which she won two Emmys and was nominated for a BAFTA. More Emmy nominations followed for the miniseries Roots (1977) and King (1978), and her later career included appearances in films (Fried Green Tomatoes, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, The Help), and her Tony winning stage role for 2013’s The Trip to Bountiful, which led to her Emmy nominated reprisal of the role in the TV movie the next year. Other accolades included the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016 and an honorary Oscar in 2018, and the Saturday Night Live episode she hosted in 1979 happens to remain the highest rated episode in the show’s history.
1972 trailer for Sounder:
