By Salim Yunusa
Cicely Tyson, the legendary Tony Award and Golden Globe-winning actress, has died. She was 96.
“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement Thursday. “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.”
Tyson starred in decades of film and television including the notable 1972 drama Sounder, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, which earned her two Emmy awards, as well as Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. In 2018, she became the first Black woman to receive an honorary Oscar. Two years later, she was selected for the Peabody Career Achievement Award for her work on the stage, in film and on television
She also scored Emmy nods for the miniseries Roots and King.
She continued to play strong women in 2011’s The Help, the TV series How to Get Away with Murder opposite Viola Davis, House of Cards, and in several Tyler Perry movies including Madea’s Family Reunion and Diary of a Mad Black Woman.
The death has shattered the hearts of her beloved fans as well as many celebrities all over the world, including Former President Obama, Oprah, Tyler Perry and many more
