Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924 January 28, 2021) was an American actress. ", Two years later, Tyson made history as the first Black woman to win a best lead actress Emmy for "Jane Pittman," one of the first television projectsto depict the fraught reality of the African American experiencein the Deep South during the transition out of enslavement. Tyson died peacefully on Thursday, January 28, Larry Thompson, her manager of over 40 years, said in a statement. Cicely Tyson, the award-winning actress who trailblazed a career across several decades and appeared in countless TV shows, films and Broadway plays, died Thursday at age 96, according to her . ", Tyson was a longtimepatron of the arts, and in 2016, President Obama awarded her with the Presidential Medal of Freedom,recalling how the actress famously declared she "would not accept roles unless they projected us, particularly women, in a realistic light and dealt with us as human beings., Obama added: "Cicelys convictions and grace have helped for us to see the dignity of every single beautiful memory of the American family., Receiving her honorary Oscar in 2018 in Los Angeles, an emotional Tyson brought the house down while brandishing the goldenstatue on stage. Tyson was a force in entertainment for decades, but in her early years she had few role models because there were few people of color who were at the top of the Hollywood game. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. and narrated the Paul Robeson Award-winning documentary Up from the Bottoms: The Search for the American Dream. "With heavy heart, the family of Miss Cicely Tyson announces her peaceful transition this afternoon," her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement. A queen and a trailblazer indeed.". "With heavy heart, the family of Miss . In 2011, Tyson appeared in her first music video in Willow Smith's 21st Century Girl. 2023 BBC. That's all. Tyson has also received various honours for her lifetime achievement as a groundbreaking artist. [16] 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? President Obama bestowed a Presidential Medal of Freedom award to Tyson in 2016, saying, "Cicely made a conscious decision not just to say lines, but to speak out. Tyson was interred in Woodlawn Cemetery (Bronx, New York) with former husband Miles Davis. [58], Tyson was godmother to the singer Lenny Kravitz, having been friends with his mother, actress Roxie Roker, as well as to Denzel Washington's daughter Katia and Tyler Perry's son Aman. Cicely Tyson visited London in 1973. I want to feel as if I embodied our humanity so fully that it made us laugh and weep, that it reminded us of our shared frailties. At age 88, she found it: playing Mrs. Carrie Watts in a Broadway revival of Horton Foote's The Trip to Bountiful, with an all-Black cast. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, Download the TMZ App on the Apple App Store, Download the TMZ App on the Google Play Store. [23] 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. Her first role was on NBCs Frontiers of Faith in 1951. By the late 1950s, Tyson was flourishing in the industry, covering magazines like "Essence" and "Jet. The former fashion model had a career that spanned seven decades. It was a performance that deeply inspired a young Viola Davis.