CICELY TYSON

She lived to 96 and worked well into her 90's. She won two Tonys, three Emmys, and a Lifetime Achievement Award Oscar. Entering show business when it was really difficult for African Americans, she nonetheless carefully selected roles that would accommodate her talent and her ambition. We won’t see the likes of Cicely Tyson again. 

Sounder (1952) is the dog of a poor sharecropping family in the South. This fine film gave Cicely Tyson her first big break and an Oscar nomination to boot. She lost to Liza Minnelli for Cabaret. But her exemplary portrayal of Rebecca resonated with casting directors and she was on her way. 

I don’t often use made-for-TV movies in my articles, but three of Cicely Tyson’s best performances are in those, so here goes. She is the whole show in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974). Playing  someone twice her age, she is mesmerizing as a woman who has seen it all. The 110-year-old former slave takes her interviewer through her life story, culminating in the civil rights movement and her participation in it. Taken from a novel by Ernest J. Gaines, the film won nine Emmys, including two for Ms. Tyson (Best Actress in a Drama and Actress of the Year).  

Another Gaines book is the basis for A Lesson Before Dying (1999). It is a familiar story about a an innocent Black man in the South convicted of murder and sentenced to death. But with the plot twist that Grant Wiggins (Don Cheadle), Tante Lou (Ms. Tyson) and others try to prepare the condemned man for the end. 

The last made-for-TV film for discussion is The Trip To Bountiful (2014). Cicely Tyson plays Carrie Watts, who lives with her overly protective son and his shrewish wife. She wants desperately to return to Bountiful,  the little town where she grew up.She outsmarts her relatives, befriends a young woman on the bus and gets a sympathetic sheriff to help her on her jaunt. There is an equally good 1985 film with the same title and story, but the people are white in that one. 

Cicely Tyson also had several good roles in theater movies. The best of these is The Help (2011) about a group of maids in a Southern town who agree to be interviewed for a tell-all book by  local girl Skeeter Phelan. Ms. Tyson is Constantine, whose firing by the writer’s mother is the incident that begins Skeeter’s decision to write the book. Viola Davis is also one of the maids and her interesting recipe for chocolate pie is not one you’ll want to try!

Cicely Tyson’s credits also include substantial roles in Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) and Because of Winn-Dixie (also 2005). All of the films in this article are available on DVD. Sounder is fine for mature kids as is The Trip To Bountiful and Because of Winn-Dixie. The rest are really for adults.