Cicely Tyson, the pioneering black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in “Sounder,” a Tony Award in 2013 died Thursday at age 96.
AP News reported that Tyson’s death was announced by her family, via her manager Larry Thompson.
“With heavy heart, the family of Miss Cicely Tyson announces her peaceful transition this afternoon. At this time, please allow the family their privacy,” according to a statement issued through Thompson.
No cause of death has been revealed.
Cicely Tyson – 1924-2021
Besides Tyson’s Oscar nomination, she won two Emmys for playing the 110-year-old former slave in the 1974 television drama “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.”
A new generation of moviegoers saw her in the 2011 hit “The Help.”
She continued with such films as “The Blue Bird,” “Concorde Airport ’79,” “Fried Green Tomatoes,” “The Grass Harp” and Tyler Perry’s “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”
COMMENTS