Cicely Tyson, the Emmy and Tony Award winning actress, has died. She was 96 years old.
E! News obtained a statement from her manager Larry Thompson announcing her passing on Thursday, Jan. 28. His statement read, “I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing.” Thompson added, ”Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.”
She released her memoir, Just As I Am, on Tuesday, Jan. 26.
Tyson won an Emmy Award in 1974 for Best Lead Actress in a Drama for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and earned more than a dozen Emmy nominations since then, including five for her guest appearance in ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder alongside Viola Davis.
She made history as a Black actress in the entertainment industry. After she was nominated for the Leading Actress in a Drama Series Emmy in 1995 for NBC’s Sweet Justice, it took nearly two decades for another Black actress to be nominated in that category. Kerry Washington had the honor in 2013.