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Cicely Tyson, the pioneering Black actor who gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in Sounder, won a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, died Thursday (Jan. 28) at age 96.
Cicely Tyson s death was announced by her family. Credit: AP Photo/Matt Sayles
Tributes from Broadway and Hollywood have poured in for actress Cicely Tyson who has died at the age of 96.
The former fashion model was known for playing strong black characters in films and had a glittering career spanning seven decades.
She gained an Oscar nomination for her role as the sharecropper s wife in the 1972 film Sounder, won a Tony Award in 2013 at the age of 88 and won two Emmy s for plaing the 110-year-old former slave in the 1974 TV drama The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
She also appeared in the 2011 film The Help.
A onetime model, Tyson began her screen career with bit parts but gained fame in the early 1970s when Black women were finally starting to get starring roles. She was nominated for an Oscar for her role as the sharecropper’s wife in Sounder, a Tony Award in 2013 at age 88 and touched TV viewers’ hearts in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.