Cicely Tyson

Actress, born in New York City, New York, USA. The daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis, she was raised in poverty. She worked as a secretary and a model while establishing herself as an actress, and with Arthur Mitchell she co-founded the Dance Theatre of Harlem. Her credits include the film Sounder (1972), and for television the mini-series Roots (1977) and the film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974), for which she won an Emmy. She was briefly married to jazz trumpeter Miles Davis.

Her first film was an uncredited role in Carib Gold in 1957, but she went on to do television - the celebrated series East Side/West Side and the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light.

In 1967, she appeared in The Comedians, and the following year, had a featured role in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

In 1972, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the critically acclaimed Sounder. Other acclaimed television roles included Roots, King (in which she portrayed Coretta Scott King), The Marva Collins Story, When No One Would Listen and Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (for which she won another Emmy).

In 2005, Tyson co-starred in the movies Because of Winn-Dixie and Diary of a Mad Black Woman.

Filmography

Carib Gold (1957) Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) The Last Angry Man (1959) A Man Called Adam (1966) The Comedians (1967) The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968) Sounder (1972) The Blue Bird (1976) The River Niger (1976) A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1978) Roots (1977) The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979) Bustin' Loose (1981) Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) Hoodlum (1997) The Double Dutch Divas! (2001) (short subject) (narrator) Because of Winn-Dixie (2005) Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) Madea's Family Reunion (2006) Fat Rose and Squeaky (2006) Idlewild (2006)