Tony and Emmy Award-Winning Actor Cicely Tyson Passes Away at 96

BroadwayWorld is saddened to report the passing of Tony Award-winning actor, Cicely Tyson. She was 96 years old.

Cicely Tyson won a 2013 Tony Award for Best Actress in a Play for her performance in The Trip to Bountiful and was also nominated for an Emmy Award for the 2014 television movie version.

Best known for her ground-breaking double Emmy Award-winning performance as Jane in "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," Miss Tyson was also nominated for an Academy Award for Sounder. She then received her third Emmy Award for "The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All" and was also nominated for her performances in "Roots," "King," "Sweet Justice," "The Marva Collins Story" and "A Lesson Before Dying".

Her many film credits include the upcoming Showing Roots, The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter, Fried Green Tomatoes, Because of Winn-Dixie, Hoodlum, Diary of a Mad Black Woman, Madea's Family Reunion, Why Did I Get Married Too?, The Help, Alex Cross. Broadway credits include The Corn Is Green, Trumpets of the Lord, A Hand Is On The Gate, Cool World and Jolly's Progress.

Off-Broadway, she appeared in the long-running production of Jean Genet's The Blacks. Miss Tyson has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1995, a middle school in East Orange, NJ was named for her. Following Miss Tyson's involvement in 2009, she was able to open a new $143 million state-of-the-art kindergarten through High School renamed the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts.

In 2018, Tyson received an honorary Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In 2016, Tyson was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award. Tyson has been a champion of civil liberties for decades and has been a recipient of top honors from the NAACP and the Kennedy Center.