Five years ago, I decided to become a 49-year-old student of Richard Lawson Studios in his Pdp 60 (Professional Development Program) class. I was the oldest student in his class at the time. While studying, I learned so many things about myself and my own points of view. I also learned that I am a storyteller and how storytelling has touched my life.
Raised in a mostly white neighborhood in Brooklyn, the same neighborhood that Chris Rock’s character was bussed to on the hit show “Everybody Hates Chris,” I learned the importance of having a Black voice and how to use the compelling truth of Black History in my work. Through asking questions and seeking knowledge of self, this became a burning passion.
First, I had to fall in love with myself. The little girl who was told in her third grade history class “You ask too many questions” and...
Raised in a mostly white neighborhood in Brooklyn, the same neighborhood that Chris Rock’s character was bussed to on the hit show “Everybody Hates Chris,” I learned the importance of having a Black voice and how to use the compelling truth of Black History in my work. Through asking questions and seeking knowledge of self, this became a burning passion.
First, I had to fall in love with myself. The little girl who was told in her third grade history class “You ask too many questions” and...
- 2/28/2021
- by Tracy 'Twinkie' Byrd
- Variety Film + TV
Honorary Oscar winner Cicely Tyson passed today at the age of 96. During a career that spanned seven decades, Tyson appeared in dozens of films, TV series, telefilms and on Broadway, winning a Tony Award for The Trip to Bountiful in 2013. She might be best known to younger audiences for her role in the hit ABC drama How to Get Away with Murder, on which she recurred as Ophelia Harkness, mother of lead character Annalise Harkness (Viola Davis).
Tyson made her silver-screen debut in 1957’s Carib Gold and went on to appear in such films as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1967), George Cukor’s The Blue Bird (1976) — which also featured Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner — A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich (1978) and 1981 Richard Pryor comedy Bustin’ Loose, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) and Madea’s Family Reunion (2006) and Best Picture...
Tyson made her silver-screen debut in 1957’s Carib Gold and went on to appear in such films as The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1967), George Cukor’s The Blue Bird (1976) — which also featured Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda and Ava Gardner — A Hero Ain’t Nothin’ But a Sandwich (1978) and 1981 Richard Pryor comedy Bustin’ Loose, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), Tyler Perry’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman (2005) and Madea’s Family Reunion (2006) and Best Picture...
- 1/29/2021
- by Brandon Choe
- Deadline Film + TV
Cicely Tyson, the trailblazing actress died whose career spanned more than six decades, died Thursday afternoon, her manager Larry Thompson confirmed. She was 96.
From the start of her career, Tyson resolved to portray strong, positive, and realistic images of black women onscreen, and for many, she represented an enduring strength. Tyson received an Oscar nomination in 1973 for Martin Ritt’s drama Sounder (and was finally given an honorary Oscar in 2018), and became famous to a wider audience for her starring role in the 1974 TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,...
From the start of her career, Tyson resolved to portray strong, positive, and realistic images of black women onscreen, and for many, she represented an enduring strength. Tyson received an Oscar nomination in 1973 for Martin Ritt’s drama Sounder (and was finally given an honorary Oscar in 2018), and became famous to a wider audience for her starring role in the 1974 TV movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Jerry Portwood
- Rollingstone.com
Groundbreaking actress Cicely Tyson is dead at age 96. Her representatives reported the news that Tyson died on January 28. She received many awards and honors during her career across film, television and Broadway, especially in later years.
Tyson was a nominee at the Academy Awards for Best Actress in the 1972 film “Sounder” and received an Honorary Oscar in 2018. She was a 16-time Emmy nominee and three-time winner for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.” She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2020. She won a Tony Award for “The Trip to Bountiful” in 2013 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015 and Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
Gold Derby interviewed Tyson just this past summer about her fifth Emmy nomination for her guest starring role on “How to Get Away with Murder.” She played Ophelia Harkness, the mother of Annalise Keating (Viola Davis...
Tyson was a nominee at the Academy Awards for Best Actress in the 1972 film “Sounder” and received an Honorary Oscar in 2018. She was a 16-time Emmy nominee and three-time winner for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All.” She was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame in 2020. She won a Tony Award for “The Trip to Bountiful” in 2013 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 2015 and Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016.
Gold Derby interviewed Tyson just this past summer about her fifth Emmy nomination for her guest starring role on “How to Get Away with Murder.” She played Ophelia Harkness, the mother of Annalise Keating (Viola Davis...
- 1/29/2021
- by Chris Beachum and Marcus James Dixon
- Gold Derby
America doesn’t have a system of knights or dames, as Britain, Australia and New Zealand do. If there were such a system, Cicely Tyson would have undoubtedly been honored. But Tyson, who died on Thursday, a month after her 96th birthday, didn’t need any government-sanctioned titles: Admirers such as Ava DuVernay, Tyler Perry and Shonda Rhimes call her Queen Cicely, which was much more appropriate for her.
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Cicely Tyson, whose more than seven decades of work across stage, screen and TV includes iconic small-screen roles as Jane Pittman, Coretta Scott King and the mother of Rosa Parks, was unveiled Monday as the recipient of the Peabody Awards’ Career Achievement Award. The honor is bestowed on individuals whose work and commitment to broadcasting and digital media have left an indelible mark on the field and in American culture.
Tyson has been nominated for 13 Emmys in all and won two for 1974’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, the start of a run that included such iconic TV series as Roots (1977), King (1978), The Women of Brewster Place (1989), Always Outnumbered (1998), A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Jewel (2002) and The Rosa Parks Story (2002).
Her TV career began in 1951 and also included credits from Naked City, I Spy and Mission: Impossible to Gunsmoke and East Side/West Side. Most recently she has appeared in...
Tyson has been nominated for 13 Emmys in all and won two for 1974’s The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, the start of a run that included such iconic TV series as Roots (1977), King (1978), The Women of Brewster Place (1989), Always Outnumbered (1998), A Lesson Before Dying (1999), Jewel (2002) and The Rosa Parks Story (2002).
Her TV career began in 1951 and also included credits from Naked City, I Spy and Mission: Impossible to Gunsmoke and East Side/West Side. Most recently she has appeared in...
- 6/8/2020
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
Bob Christiansen, an Emmy-winning producer on Cicely Tyson's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman who guided other high-profile telefilms starring Bette Davis, Alan Alda, James Caan and Alfre Woodard, has died. He was 85.
Christiansen died Dec. 4 of complications from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, family friend Joie Gould Gati told The Hollywood Reporter.
He worked in the THR sales department in the 1960s before becoming a producer.
With Rick Rosenberg at Chris/Rose Productions, Christiansen also produced telefilms that included 1972's The Glass House, based on a Truman Capote story and starring Alan Alda; 1975's ...
Christiansen died Dec. 4 of complications from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, family friend Joie Gould Gati told The Hollywood Reporter.
He worked in the THR sales department in the 1960s before becoming a producer.
With Rick Rosenberg at Chris/Rose Productions, Christiansen also produced telefilms that included 1972's The Glass House, based on a Truman Capote story and starring Alan Alda; 1975's ...
- 1/17/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Bob Christiansen, an Emmy-winning producer on Cicely Tyson's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman who guided other high-profile telefilms starring Bette Davis, Alan Alda, James Caan and Alfre Woodard, has died. He was 85.
Christiansen died Dec. 4 of complications from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, family friend Joie Gould Gati told The Hollywood Reporter.
He worked in the THR sales department in the 1960s before becoming a producer.
With Rick Rosenberg at Chris/Rose Productions, Christiansen also produced telefilms that included 1972's The Glass House, based on a Truman Capote story and starring Alan Alda; 1975's ...
Christiansen died Dec. 4 of complications from cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, family friend Joie Gould Gati told The Hollywood Reporter.
He worked in the THR sales department in the 1960s before becoming a producer.
With Rick Rosenberg at Chris/Rose Productions, Christiansen also produced telefilms that included 1972's The Glass House, based on a Truman Capote story and starring Alan Alda; 1975's ...
- 1/17/2019
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
Actress Cicely Tyson has had a pretty legendary career, which is about to be enhanced with a bit of gold early next year when she becomes the first black woman to receive an honorary Oscar by the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. At the age of 93, she's still working her magic. Born on Dec. 19, 1924, in NYC, Cicely began her career as a model when she was discovered by a photographer for Ebony magazine. She began acting in 1951, initially appearing as a guest star on some shows and as a regular on East Side/West Side. The more she went on, the more acclaimed her performances became in TV miniseries like The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Roots, King, and The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All. On the big screen, she achieved great acclaim for 1972's Sounder, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award,...
- 9/7/2018
- by Ed Gross
- Closer Weekly
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