USA TODAY International Edition
Cicely Tyson dies at 96, trailblazer in TV and film
The legendary actress permeated American culture robustly for seven decades.
Cutting into a tree reveals its inner rings, which tell a story of the tree’s existence, how it grew and what happened around it. Cicely Tyson’s new book cuts into her tree of life – and the legendary actress showcases the rings of her seven- decadelong career in her first memoir, “Just As I Am.” h Her youth growing up in New York, life pre- fame and groundbreaking work span 400 pages in the book ( HarperCollins, out now), written with collaborator Michelle Burford and broken into three sections: Planted, Rooted and Bountiful.
Viola Davis, Tyson’s onscreen daughter Annalise Keating in the ABC drama series “How to Get Away With Murder,” writes the foreword, sharing emotional memories of her first discovery of Tyson’s work and how it affected her.
The famed nonagenarian, known for her roles as Rebecca in “Sounder,” the titular character in “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and Binta in “Roots,” weaves childhood memories and career highlights with musings about the state of the world today – making it clear that though much has changed, much also hasn’t.
At 96, Tyson has lived a lot of life, and her text is rich with lived history, as well as historical notes that provide context to past and current unrest and racial strife. Being born to West Indian parents ( both from Nevis) in New York, dealing with the ramifications of being Black, having her parents separate during her childhood and birthing a baby girl at 17 set the stage for bringing to life her form of activism through art.
Tyson raised her daughter, whom she calls “Joan” in the book, largely out of the spotlight, though she describes her daughter’s birth and upbringing ( and the way her career affected her lone child) in detail. Tyson said she and her daughter “continue to work on our relationship, as fragile as it is precious,” and she dedicates the book to her: “the one who has paid the greatest price for this gift to all.”
We’ve rounded up the book’s most poignant moments, including stories about fellow Black trailblazers and her activist work.
Tyson shares activism through art
Tyson begins the book’s second act with a quote from Charles C. Seifert: “A race without the knowledge of its history is like a tree without roots.”
Her roles as nuanced Black women are infused with the act of taking up space, changing the narrative and giving humanity back to Black
communities in the same industry where it is simultaneously denied in other pieces of art. “As a people, we’ve done what we’ve had to do to survive, and rather than feel ashamed of it, we should celebrate it.”
Tyson also shares stories of using her platform to pay it forward, including the late- night ideation of opening the Dance Theatre of Harlem with Arthur Mitchell and Brock Peters or the phone calls that sparked the Cicely L. Tyson Community School of Performing and Fine Arts in New Jersey.
She reveals an assault early in her career
As she began to act, Tyson didn’t want to rely just on her emotional talents – she wanted the skills to back it up. Tyson wanted actor/ director Lloyd Richards of Paul Mann Actor’s Workshop to teach her the art behind acting. But an assault threatened to derail her career before it began.
In order to take classes and get mentorship from Richards, Tyson had to go through Mann’s acting workshop. At an initial meeting with Mann, Tyson recounts that he “rose from his desk and walked over to shut his door. I stood, as did every hair on my neck.”
Tyson continues: “Paul, a menacing tower of flesh, thrust himself toward me and began manhandling my breasts, attempting to remove my blouse as I shoved him away. ‘ No!’ I yelled. ‘ Get off of me!’ He tried to jam me against the wall and shove his hand under my camisole, but I somehow managed to break free.”
Tyson says she was able to escape the encounter, but that she still had to interact with Mann as she took his acting workshop. “Life is choices, and as I saw it, I had two. I could’ve fled from that man’s office and never returned. Many, understandably, might have chosen that route. … I had arrived at that studio with the singular purpose of training with Lloyd. And though Paul, in a show of breathless lasciviousness, had attempted to thwart my mission, I was not to be deterred.” Mann later was found guilty in a civil suit of harassing other women from his acting workshop
Her career connected her to theater, Hollywood greats ( plus her famous godchildren)
Maya Angelou. Oprah Winfrey. James Earl Jones. Sidney Poitier. Diahann Carroll. Viola Davis. Tyler Perry. All Black pioneers of the screen, stage and page, and all close friends of Tyson.
Tyson shares personal details of her yearslong friendships with industry veterans: Angelou, the hostess who didn’t need a special occasion “to pull out her finest cutlery and Baccarat crystal”; “painfully shy” Jones; her gossip sessions at New York Italian eatery Sardi’s and her laughs with Carroll; Perry paying her “double … even triple or quadruple” on projects once he heard how underpaid she was for her landmark roles; and her “cherished sisterhood” with Winfrey. She also goes “way back” with Frank Sinatra and recalled a legal “dust- up” with Elizabeth Taylor.
Tyson’s friendships throughout her stage and screen endeavors resulted in some equally illustrious godchildren. For instance, you may have heard of rockstar Lenny Kravitz, otherwise known as Tyson’s godson thanks to her friendship with Kravitz’s mom and “The Jeffersons” star Roxie Roker. Tyson also is a godparent to Denzel Washington’s
daughter, Katia, and Perry’s son, Aman.
Her romance with Miles Davis spanned two decades
Not only did Tyson form friendships with future icons, but she also formed a relationship with legendary jazz musician and master trumpeter Miles Davis that lasted on and off for more than 20 years.
The two initially connected in 1965 after a chance meeting in Riverside Park, though Davis’ struggles with addiction and infidelity ultimately drove them apart. They had other romances over the years, but Davis and Tyson reunited years later in their 50s, marrying at Bill Cosby’s home on Thanksgiving Day in 1981.
At the start of their marriage, Tyson nursed Davis back to health after years of drug use had negatively affected his vital organs. But once Davis’ strength improved, Tyson writes, he “resumed the cycle” of drugs and adultery that first split them up. An ongoing tryst between Davis and a woman in their New York apartment building – which led to a physical altercation between Tyson and the other woman – proved too much for the relationship, and Tyson filed for divorce. Of their relationship, Tyson insists: “I loved Miles and he loved me.”
She didn’t reveal her real age until she was 90
It wasn’t until recently, at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors where Tyson received recognition for her contributions to the performing arts, that she revealed her true age. “For decades up to then, folks had been trying, and largely failing, to guess how old I was,” she writes, adding that she turned 90 in the months before the event.
When Tyson began her acting career, at the advice of her then- manager Warren Coleman, she said she was 20 instead of 30. The change in age stuck throughout her career, with many thinking she was a full decade younger than she actually was. “The truth is, I’ve always been quietly proud of my real age. … But when the Kennedy Center honor came around, I felt it was important to at last set the record straight,” she writes alongside her birthdate: Dec. 19, 1924.