Cicely Tyson receives the Legends Award from Bishop T.D. Jakes. Image: Courtesy/Getty Images for MegaFest 2017.
Renowned Born-again Christian and actress Cicely Tyson has died; she was 96 years old.
Tyson’s death comes days after the publication of her autobiography titled Just As I Am, inspired by a Christian hymn she held close as her testimony over the years.
Therein, the legendary star whose career spanned some 65 years, wrote that church was the “cornerstone” of her childhood, and the place where she learned to overcome her shyness. Tyson, a child of West Indian parents, called it a “blessing” to have been raised in the Baptist and Episcopalian traditions.
“Yet I am… the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say,” Tyson wrote in the description of her book.
She also pondered her eventual death, writing:
“I don’t know when my day is coming. None of us does. Which is why, as soon as my lids slide open each morning, I say thank you. Thank you, Father, for the gift of another day. Thank you for just one more breath. Thank you for the sacred opportunity to live this life.”
“The way I see it, God isn’t finished with me. And when I’ve completed my job, he’ll take me. Until then, I’ve got plenty to do,” Tyson wrote.
Reports that that “throughout her career Tyson refused to play drug addicts, prostitutes or maids, roles she thought demeaning to Black women. But when a good part came along she grabbed hold of it with tenacity,” Variety magazine writes.
“I’m very selective as I’ve been my whole career about what I do. Unfortunately, I’m not the kind of person who works only for money. It has to have some real substance for me to do it,” Tyson told The Associated Press in 2013.
Her death was announced by Larry Thompson, her longtime manager, who did not immediately provide additional details.
Cicely was honored in 2017 as the first recipient of the International Faith and Family Film Festival Award at Bishop T.D. Jakes’ inaugural Legends Awards.
American actor, director, producer and screenwriter Tyler Perry shared some sweet words about the legend: ‘She was the grandmother I never had.’
They worked together on several films beginning with 2005’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman as well as Why Did I Get Married?, Madea’s Family Reunion and Why Did I Get Married Too?
“My heart breaks in one beat, while celebrating her life in the next,” Tyler Perry wrote. “To think that she lived for 96 years and I got to be a part of the last 16 brings me great joy. She called me son. Well, today your son grieves your loss and will miss our long talks, your laughter from your belly, and your very presence.”
With more than 95 credits to her name, Tyson was married twice and had one known child.
