Cicely Tyson, Hollywood icon for more than seven decades, dies at 96

Actress Cicely Tyson, who specialized in portraying strong Black women caught up in life's struggles during a 60-year career that earned her 3 Emmys and a Tony Award, died on Thursday at age 96, her manager said in a statement.

No cause of death was given. Tyson had recently completed a memoir, "Just As I Am," which was released just this week. Tyson's most-lauded performances came in historical works such as the 1972 movie "Sounder" in which she played a Louisiana sharecropper's wife. That film earned Tyson her only Academy Award nomination, but she received an honorary Oscar in November 2018.

She also won two Emmys for the same TV movie, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" - one for best actress in a miniseries or movie and one for the actress of the year. The 1974 movie covered a woman's life from slavery to the 1960s.

 

 

 

 

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Her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement that Tyson "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."

In February 2019 at age 94, Tyson was on the cover of Time magazine's "The Art of Optimism" edition and an interviewer asked if she had considered retiring. "And do what?" was her response.

Tyson said she used her career to take on issues important to her, such as race and gender. "I realized very early on when I was asked certain questions or treated in a certain way that I needed to use my career to address those issues," she said in a People magazine interview in 2015.

 

 

 

 

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Tyson was given the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2016. Tyson was married to jazz trumpet legend Miles Davis from 1981 through 1988 and Davis, who died in 1991, put her on the cover of his album "Sorcerer."

Their marriage was a rocky one, troubled by reports of his alleged philandering, domestic violence, and substance abuse. But in a 2015 interview with CBS, Tyson said,  "I don't really talk about it but I will say this: I cherish every single moment that I had with him."