Cicely Tyson, iconic US Black actress, dies at 96

Pioneering Hollywood actress Cicely Tyson – who was known for portraying strong African-American characters – has died aged 96, her manager has said.

In her extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson was one of the rare award-winning actors whose work on the screen was surpassed only by what she was able to accomplish off of it. She had a heart unlike any other—and for 96 years, she left a mark on the world that few will ever match. pic.twitter.com/JRsL3zlKtP

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 29, 2021

No cause of the death was given. The former fashion model had a career that spanned seven decades.

Tyson won two Emmys for her performance in the 1974 civil rights-era film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.

She also became the first black woman to take on a main role in the TV drama East Side/West Side in the 1960s.

Presenting Tyson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, the then US President Barack Obama said that apart from her achievements as a actress, she had also shaped the course of history.

Yet she said her most important accomplishment happened in 2016 when President Barack Obama awarded her the Medal of Freedom.

“In her long and extraordinary career, Cicely Tyson has not only exceeded as an actor, she has shaped the course of history,” Obama said that day.

Tyson described that moment as “the most important thing that could happen to me.”

“I am one of three children, grew up in the area that is now known as El Barrio and that was the East Side (of New York),” she told TV host Steve Harvey. “To come from there to the White House with the first black President … to put that medal around my neck: Where can you go from there?”