CICELY TYSON REFUSED TO BE BULLIED!
TRAILBLAZING Hollywood legend Cicely Tyson almost didn’t become an actress!
“My mother told me if I was going to go into acting, I had to leave her house. So I did,” Cicely admitted.
“My mother didn’t speak to me for years. She was concerned I was going to live a life of sin!
“But I was determined to prove her wrong. She became my biggest source of drive in my life!”
During her six-decade career, Cicely was Oscarnominated for her role as Rebecca in the 1972 film Sounder and became the first Black woman to win a Lead Actress Emmy for The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
She eventually chalked up two Emmys, a Tony and an honorary Oscar!
But she vowed never to retire. “That will be the end of you,” she warned.
On Jan. 26, aged 96, she released her memoir, Just as I Am.
Two days later, the pioneering powerhouse took her final curtain.