Tyson, who first entered the spotlight as a model, earned an honorary Oscar statuette, three Emmy Awards and a Tony Award in a career that spanned decades.
, the award-winning actress who trailblazed a career across several decades and appeared in countless TV shows, films and Broadway plays, died Thursday at age 96, according to her manager. Tyson’s role as a sharecropper’s wife in the film „Sounder“ landed her an Oscar nomination in 1973. „With heavy heart, the family of Miss Cicely Tyson announces her peaceful transition this afternoon,“ Tyson’s family said in a statement from her manager. „At this time, please allow the family their privacy.“ Tyson, who first entered the spotlight as a model, was well-known across the entertainment industry, earning two Emmy Awards — best lead actress in a drama and best actress in a special — for her role as a former slave in the 1974 TV drama „The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.“ In a defining moment of the film, Pittman walks up and drinks from the whites-only water fountain. „Well, when I’m working, I just tell everybody. I said, ‚I don’t care what you see. Please don’t tell me about it… because I work so organically,'“ Tyson said. „So the next day, when I came on the set, I knew something had happened. And I simply said, ‚Please don’t tell me. I don’t want to know…‘ and people were talking about the walk. I said, ‚What walk?'“ In 1994, she won a supporting actress Emmy for her role in „Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All,“ and a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 for best leading actress in the play „The Trip to Bountiful.“ She starred alongside Vanessa Williams, who was inspired by Tyson’s work ethic, according to a 2015 interview. „She did not miss one performance ever…. There’s no excuse to not show up when Cicely Tyson can show up every day,“ Williams said at the time about Tyson.
