Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Honorary Oscar winner, died Thursday at the age of 96, according to her long-time manager Larry Thompson.
Thompson confirmed the news but did not provide details of her death.
“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” Thompson said. “Cicely 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.”
Tyson was nominated for Emmy awards 16 times, winning three of them. She was the first Black woman to win a Lead Actress Emmy, according to Deadline. Her 2019 Honorary Oscar was the first presented to a Black woman.
In her long acting career, Tyson appeared in dozens of films, TV series, and telefilms. She won a Tony Award for The Trip to Bountiful in 2013.
Tyson was committed to presenting only positive images of Black women, which probably cost her some work in film and television.
Back in 2016, President Barack Obama presented Tyson with the nation’s highest civilian award – the Presidential Medal of Freedom, for her contribution to the arts and American culture.
Born on December 19, 1924, in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, Tyson launched her TV career in 1951 with roles ranging from Naked City, I Spy, and Mission: Impossible to Gunsmoke, among others.
Most recently, Tyson starred opposite James Earl Jones in two-hander The Gin Game and with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Vanessa Williams in Horton Foote’s The Trip to Bountiful. Tyson married jazz legend Miles Davis on November 26, 1981. Their marriage was tumultuous due to Davis’ volatile temper and infidelity. They got divorced in 1989. Tyson had a daughter when she was 17 years old. She was a vegetarian.
