ABUJA — Award-winning actress and fashion model, Cicely Tyson, has died at the age of 96.
Cicely was first discovered by a photographer and went on to become a very successful fashion model.
In 1951, she made her acting debut in the TV series “Frontiers of Faith.” She then made her feature film debut in 1956, in the movie, Carib Gold.
Tyson became the first African-American to star in a television drama when she starred in the series East Side/West Side (1963–1964).
The New York Times Magazine says “It’s no stretch to say that Cicely Tyson widened the scope of American popular culture. Her groundbreaking portrayals of complex, dignified Black women in feature films like ‘‘Sounder’’ (1972) and the 1974 television film ‘‘The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman’’ showed aspects of the American experience that had rarely, if ever, been represented onscreen before.”
In 1972, she was nominated for both the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her work in the film, Sounder.
In 1974, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman won her two Emmy Awards and a nomination for a BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role.
With over 7 decades in the film industry, Cicely is the epitome of a legend, with three Primetime Emmy Awards, four Black Reel Awards, one Screen Actors Guild Award, one Tony Award, an honorary Academy Award, and a Peabody Award.
In 2015, Cicely was named a Kennedy Centre honoree and in November 2016, under President Barak Obama, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest civilian honour in the United States.
Though she has been previously nominated not never won, however, in 2018, she was given an honorary Oscar statuette at the annual Governors Awards. “I come from lowly status. I grew up in an area that was called the slums at the time,” Tyson said at the time. “I still cannot imagine that I have met with presidents, kings, queens. How did I get here? I marvel at it.”
In 2020, she was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame.
(WAP with Agency Report)
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