Cicely Tyson

Cicely was born in Harlem to William Augustine Tyson (carpenter, painter) and Frederica Tyson (domestic worker). Her parents had emigrated from the West Indies (William arrived in NYC in 1919). Her first work was in Ebony magazine as a fashion model. But her first acting work was on the tv series "Frontiers of Faith" in 1951 and she first appeared in movies in 1956 in "Carib Gold". An amazing talent, Cicely was the first African American to star in a tv show in "East Side/West Side" (1963-1964) and in the soap opera "The Guiding Light". Then, along with such notables as Maya Angelou, James Earl Jones, Godfrey Cambridge, Louis Gossett Jr, and Charles Gordone, she appeared in the original cast of "The Blacks" - the longest running off-Broadway non-musical of the early 1960s. In her 7+ decades as an actress, Cicely excelled in movies and on tv. For her performance in the movie "Sounder", she was nominated for both an Oscar and a Golden Globe. And for "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman", a television film, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress – Miniseries or a Movie and an Emmy Award for Actress of the Year – Special. Her marriage to Kenneth Franklin (she was 18) ended in dating off and on in the 1960s, she married musician on November 26, 1981 but Cicely filed for divorce in 1988 after a tumultuous relationship. Cicely had no children from either marriage. Scroll down to read 2 obituaries.