Topline
Celebrities and key figures including Oprah and former President Barack Obama celebrated the life of actress Cicely Tyson after Emmy and Tony award winners died Thursday at age 96, honoring the actress and her innovative career with obedience and heartfelt memories.
Then-President Barack Obama presents Actress’s Freedom Medal to actress Cicely Tyson at … [+]
AFP through Getty Images
Key facts
Obama said Tyson left a “mark on the world that few will ever match,” referring to her as “one of the rarest award-winning actors and her on-screen work went straight out with what she could achieve. ”
Oprah shared a photo from one of her favorite memories of Tyson at the Legends Ball in 2005, praising Tyson for using “her career to illuminate the humanity of black people” and saying, “Her life so alive to witness His Majesty. ”
“My heart is just broken,” wrote actress Viola Davis, adding that Tyson “makes me feel and be seen and valued in a world where there is a cloak of invisibility yet for dark chocolate girls. ”
Shonda Rhimes, who owns the show How to get away with murder Tyson played a recurring role, remembering Tyson as an “amazing person” with “so much to teach,” writing, “His power and grace will be with us forever.”
When Tyson passed “he got me on my knees,” Tyler Perry wrote, remembering her as “the grandmother I never had and the wisdom tree I can ever sit on to fill my cup. ”
Director Ava DuVernay shared her memories of Tyson – from the hooks, smiles and words to her love for DuVernay and “heroic pictures [that] transform the way the world viewed black women, whether or not they accepted what you were sharing. ”
Quote Cruise
“Perhaps the thing that struck me every time I spent time with Cicely Tyson was not her star power – although that was obvious enough – it was her humanity,” she said. First Lady Michelle Obama on it Twitter. “She was a person of beauty, grace, wisdom and strength, carrying a flame that not only led her for an exciting 96 years but lit the way for so many of us. ”
Key background
Tyson’s seven-year career spanned both stage and screen, winning three Emmy Awards, an honorary Oscar and a 2013 Tony Award that made her, at the age of 88, the oldest person to win the most honors. height at Broadway. President Obama was also honored by President Obama with the 2016 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Tyson’s most famous credits include the 1972 film Sounder, which won her an Academy Award, and the television film Biography of Mrs. Jane Pittman, who won two Emmy Awards for Tyson. The actress passed away days after the publication of her memoir, Just the way I am., manager Larry Thompson said in a statement Thursday that the actress “thought of … as a Christmas tree decorated with all the decorations of her personal and professional life.” “Today she put the last decoration, Rionnag, on top of the tree.”
Further reading
Cicely Tyson, an actress who broke stereotypes, dies at 96 (New York Times)
Cicely Tyson, Hollywood Pioneering Image, dies at 96 (Variety)
Cicely Tyson has a secret to living to the fullest (New York Times)