Photo: Kingkongphoto & www.celebrity-photos.com from Laurel Maryland, USA / CC BY-SA 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Cicely Tyson is the kind of artist who reorders your sense of what acting is for. Across seven decades she refused roles that diminished Black women, choosing dignity over volume, and that single principle shaped a career as much as any performance did. Sounder and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman feel less like films than acts of witness. What moves me is the late-career defiance: winning a Tony at 88, collecting the Presidential Medal of Freedom and an honorary Oscar without ever softening her standards. Her gaze alone carried moral weight. When she passed in 2021, the screen lost a conscience, not just a star.
Overview
Cecily Louise "Cicely" Tyson (; December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career spanning seven decades, she portrayed complex and strong-willed African American women. She received several awards including three Emmy Awards, a Peabody Award and a Tony Award, as well as nominations for a BAFTA Award and a Golden Globe Award.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Cicely Tyson
- Name (Japanese)
- シシリー・タイソン
- Reading
- ししりー・たいそん
- Born
- December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Sagittarius / Rat
- Origin
- New York, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- 64 cm
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- stage actor / film actor / television actor / model / voice actor
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Private
- University
- Private
Awards & achievements
- 2010 Spingarn Medal
- 2013 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play
- 1988 Candace Award
- 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom
- 2015 Kennedy Center Honors
- 1977 Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame
- 1982 Crystal Award
- 2019 Academy Honorary Award
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
5. Works & records
| Category | Title | Role | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notable work | Sounder | — | |
| Notable work | The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman | — | |
| Notable work | Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All | — | |
| Notable work | Diary of a Mad Black Woman | — | |
| Notable work | The Help | — | |
| Notable work | How to Get Away with Murder | — |
6. Links
Stage actor — see all → · Film actor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.