Tag: Cicely Tyson

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Trailblazing Actress Cicely Tyson Dead At 96

Cicely Tyson has died at the age of 96

Cicely Tyson has died at the age of 96
Cicely Tyson (photo: John Matthew Smith – CC License)
The great Emmy and Tony Award winning actress Cicely Tyson has died at the age of 96. From Variety:

Tyson made her film debut with a small role in 1957’s “Twelve Angry Men” and her formal debut in the 1959 Sidney Poitier film “Odds Against Tomorrow,” followed by “The Comedians,” “The Last Angry Man,” “A Man Called Adam” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.”

Refusing to participate in the blaxploitation movies that became popular in the late ’60s, she waited until 1972 to return to the screen in the drama “Sounder,” which captured several Oscar nominations including one for Tyson as best actress.

Despite her achievements onstage and in films, however, much of the actress’s best work was done for television. In addition to “Miss Jane Pittman,” she did outstanding work in “Roots,” “The Wilma Rudolph Story,” “King: The Martin Luther King Story,” “When No One Would Listen,” “A Woman Called Moses,” “The Marva Collins Story,” “The Women of Brewster Place,” “The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All” and the TV adaptation of “Trip to Bountiful.”

Onstage she was in the original 1961 Off Broadway production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” and, decades later, she won a Tony for her starring role in a revival of “The Trip to Bountiful.”

I was blessed to see Tyson’s return to the Broadway stage in 2013 when she knocked it out of the park in The Trip to Bountiful. An incredible night in the theater. It was a rich and diverse life and career. One we were most fortunate to witness. Head over to Variety to read the full accounting of her work. Rest in power, Cicely Tyson.

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Cicely Tyson and Vanessa Williams star in Lifetime TV Movie – “The Trip To Bountiful”

I know I talk quite a bit about Broadway here on The Randy Report.

And you may say,  “Randy, I love your posts about Broadway, but I can’t afford the ticket price.”

Or – “I can’t afford to travel to New York City to see Broadway.”

Completely understandable. Now – Broadway comes to you.

Tony Award winner Cicely Tyson and Tony Award nominee Vanessa Williams reprise their celebrated Broadway performances in “The Trip To Bountiful” – the award-winning Horton Foote play brought to television as a Lifetime Movie World Premiere.

This movie event debuts on Lifetime TV this Saturday at 8pm with encore performances to follow.

I saw the play on Broadway last year and it was as beautiful, artful and touching.

With Vanessa Williams after her gorgeous performance in “The Trip to Bountiful” on Broadway

Here’s a bit about the movie from Lifetime:

Based on Oscar®, Pulitzer Prize, and Emmy Award winning author Horton Foote’s Tony Award nominated play, “The Trip to Bountiful” is a courageous and moving story of liberation, as well as a humor-filled celebration of the human spirit.

In “The Trip to Bountiful,” Carrie Watts, begrudgingly lives with her busy, overprotective son, Ludie and pretentious daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae. No longer able to drive and forbidden to travel alone, she wishes for freedom from the confines of the house and begs her son to take her on a visit to her hometown of Bountiful. When he refuses, Mrs. Watts is undeterred and makes an escape to the local bus station, where she befriends Thelma, a young woman traveling home. When Ludie and Jessie Mae discover she is gone, they call in law enforcement to help, but Mrs. Watts is one step ahead of them and convinces the local sheriff to help her on her journey home to Bountiful.

Don’t miss Cicely Tyson, Vanessa Williams along with Blair Underwood and Keke Palmer in this television event.  You’ll be glad you did.

Now go set the DVR.  Now.

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Ad: Broadway’s “The Trip To Bountiful”

Ending a 30 year absence, celebrated actress Cecily Tyson, three-time Emmy® Award winner for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and “Oldest Confederate Widow Tells All” and Academy Award® nominee for Sounder, makes her triumphant return to Broadway in this eagerly anticipated new production, directed by Michael Wilson (Gore Vidal’s The Best Man, Dividing the Estate).

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL follows Carrie Watts (Tyson), an active, highly motivated widow living in a cramped apartment in Houston in the Spring of 1953 with her son (Cuba Gooding Jr.) and daughter-in-law (Vanessa Williams) . Carrie escapes her relatives’ watchful eyes to realize her dearest dream: to return to her beloved hometown, Bountiful. What starts as an ordinary trip soon becomes an inspiring and life-changing journey of discovery.

With powerful themes regarding memory, mortality and the undeniable, universal yearning for home, you won’t want to miss this powerful show The Cleveland Plain Dealer calls, “A gorgeous, great play. American theater at its most engaging.”

For tickets click here.