NEW YORK-Emmy and Tony-award winning actress Cicely Tyson (pictured), a Civil Rights advocate and pioneer and pacesetter for Black women in theater, film and television who is best known for starring roles in iconic films such as “Sounder,” and “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.” died on Thursday.
She was 96.
Funeral arrangements are pending
Tyson's career spanned some 65 years.
Sounder brought her a nomination for best actress.
In addition to her Screen Actor Guild Award, her Tony Award, her Emmy Awards, and her Black Reel Awards, Tyson received several other honors, including induction into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame.
In 1980, she received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
Tyson was a recipient of the prestigious Kennedy Center Honors in 2015 and was awarded the United States' highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, by President Barack Obama in November 2016
She was awarded the NAACP's 2010 Spingarn Medal for her contribution to the entertainment industry, her modeling career, and her support of Civil Rights
“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 on the actresses' death. “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.”
An elegant and dignified actress who broke racial barriers and won and Emmy and a Tony at age 89, Tyson's memoir “Just As I Am” was published on Tuesday.
She began in movies with the 1959 Harry Belafonte film “Odds Against Tomorrow,” and later “The Comedians,” “The Last Angry Man,” “A Man Called Adam” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”
As an older and seasoned actress she had roles in some of Tyler Perry's films, including "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," and "Madea's Family Reunion."
The daughter of immigrants, she was born in Harlem in 1924 to working class parents.
At 21 she was discovered by an and has a successful modeling career before taking on theater, television and film roles.
She had a daughter at 17 and at 18 she married Kenneth Franklin, whom she later divorced after he abandoned her. She later married the late jazz trumpeter Miles Davis during a ceremony conducted by Andrew Young, who was the mayor of Atlanta at the time, and at the home of Bill Cosby.
Her tumultuous marriage to Davis ended in divorce in 1989, two years before he died in 1991.
