The Legendary Cicely Tyson Has Died

Just one day after the world became a lot less funny and interesting when we lost the legendary Cloris Leachman, another legend has left us. Pioneering icon Cicely Tyson, who won several Emmy Awards, a Tony, a Peabody, and was a HSOTD (a true achievement, I know), died today. She was 96.

Cicely’s manager Larry Thompson confirmed the sad news in a statement to Variety, mentioning her memoir, Just As I Am, which was just released on Tuesday:

“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.”

I always thought that Cicely’s full name was Cicely Fucking Tyson, but she was not given a middle name when she was born in Harlem on December 19, 1924. After graduating high school, she worked as a secretary for the American Red Cross before she was scouted by a photographer for Ebony and got into modeling. She modeled for Ebony, Vogue, Jet, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Cicely studied acting at the Actors Studio and made her professional acting debut in 1951 on the NBC series Frontiers of Faith. In 1961, she starred in the off-Broadway play The Blacks, alongside Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, and Louis Gossett, Jr. George C. Scott was in the audience during one of Cicely’s performance in The Blacks and asked her to be a part of the cast of his TV drama series East Side/West Side, which ran from 1963 to 1964. Cicely took the part and became the first Black actor to star in a TV drama.

Cicely has said that during her career, she tried to stay away from roles that she felt were deameaning to Black women, choosing to play multi-layered characters.

Throughout the 50s and 60s, Cicely was in several TV shows and movies, and in 1972, she starred in the movie Sounder, which got her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. From there she pretty much became the premiere thespian of television films by playing the title role in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Binta in Roots, Coretta Scott King in King, Harriet Tubman in A Woman Called Moses, the title role in The Marva Collins Story, and Mrs. Browne in The Women of Brewster Place.

Cicely didn’t slow down at all when the 90s came and was in Fried Green Tomatoes, Hoodlum, Heat Wave, Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, A Lesson Before Dying, Aftershock: Earthquake In New York, and one of my favorites Ms. Scrooge, which you can watch in full on YouTube.

I know it feels like I just listed everything Cicely was ever in, and that’s because she was in so many great things. I also didn’t list everything because there’s more! Cicely was also in The Help, House of Cards, How To Get Away With Murder, The Trip To Bountiful (and she also starred in the 2013 Broadway revival which got her a Tony), and several Tyler Perry movies.

Cicely received many, many awards and honors throughout her career including three Emmys, the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in 2016, and an honorary Oscar in 2018.

Cicely was married to Kenneth Franklin from 1942 to 1956 and Miles Davis from 1981 to 1988.

And it would be illegal for me to not mention that Cicely Tyson was also a spark of potent glamour. Cicely flooded every red carpet she touched with massive amounts of fire and elegance. We hardly do galleries around here anymore, but I had to do one to show off just how Cicely was the star of every event she graced.

Rest in peace, Cicely Tyson.

Pics: Getty/Jack Mitchell, Wenn.com