She also starred in the film version of Graham Greene’s The Comedians (1967). Tyson had a featured role in The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968), and appeared in a segment of Roots.
ROOTS
Tyson starred alongside Maya Angelou in the first episode, portraying Kunta Kinte’s mother, Binta. The series received 37 Primetime Emmy nominations and won nine.
Maya Angelou and Ms. Tyson in the 1977 mini-series “Roots.”Credit…Warner Brothers
LeVar Burton Remembers ‘Roots’ Co-Star Cicely Tyson: ‘She Was Royalty’
By LeVar Burton
She was quite simply one of the most beautiful and talented women of her generation.
Elegance, style, and natural grace oozed effortlessly from every pore of her being, but the word that describes her best in my mind is, regal. She was royalty with a capital “R.” She possessed a nobility of character and carriage that could, in equal turns, enchant and intimidate. She knew exactly who she was and dared anyone to disagree with her self-assessment. She was vital, energetic, and possessing an irresistible magnetism that made folks of every stripe and station clamor to be in her midst. Her presence onscreen was nothing short of mesmerizing. Her unparalleled gift was the ability to imbue each character she portrayed with immense humanity which made them cherished and memorable to audiences around the world. She played big both in life and on the stage in spite of her diminutive frame, but make no mistake, she could summon the fierceness of a prowling lioness at will.
On my very first day as a professional actor in “Roots,” Cicely Tyson, played my mother. I could hardly believe I was in the presence of such a legend let alone about to act opposite her in a scene. We were on location in St. Simon’s Island, Georgia where production had constructed the village of Juffere, the ancestral home of Kunta Kinte. Over the course of the morning’s work, I was in awe. Understandably nervous, I wanted desperately to impress her in any way I might.
In the scene we were to shoot, Kunta has returned from manhood training to his mother’s hut to collect his belongings in order to take his place among the other men in the tribe and move into his own lodging. During a lull, I saw what I was certain to be a sure-fire way to score some approval points. An interloper, some gnarly bug, had made its way into the hut and in my mind did pose a threat to the one and only Cicely Tyson. So, I bravely trapped it under my foot and squashed it!
Her response was as unexpected as any I have ever encountered. She lit into me as if she had given birth to me, “Don’t you ever think that because you are bigger than a thing, or more powerful, that you have the right to take its life!” I stood there mute. Mortified and crestfallen, chastised by the mother I had only just met. Then she hugged me with a fierceness that almost took my breath away. In true motherly fashion, she impressed upon me in that moment, not only the sanctified nature of life but the responsibility of the strong to watch out for and protect the weak, as well.
It was always that way between us… like, mother and son. And yet I know that I am only one among legions with whom she shared her wisdom, hard-won over a lifetime of triumph over adversities untold, and her warm, loving ways. While the sense of what we have lost in her passing will only come fully into focus through the passage of time, the impact of her life and legacy will always be that of a Royal, who walked among us and shined her regal radiance upon us.
This one cuts deep. CicelyTyson was my first screen Mom.. Elegance, warmth, beauty, wisdom, style, and abundant grace. She was as regal as they come. An artist of the highest order, I will love her forever.
Ben Vereen, Leslie Uggams, John Amos, Cicely Tyson, and LeVar Burton
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NEW YORK, NY – AUGUST 05: Cicely Tyson and Lenny Kravitz attend Lee Daniels’ “The Butler” New York Premiere After Party at The Bowery Hotel on August 5, 2013, in New York City. (Photo by Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images)
Lenny Kravitz mourned the loss of his “dear Godmother Miss Cicely Tyson” and said she lived a “remarkable life up to the last moment” with “inimitable style and grace.”
“A Black queen who showed us how beautiful Black is,” Kravitz wrote Friday in a lengthy tribute on Instagram. “The love between us was and is tremendous. As long as I have had consciousness, I’ve known Godmother. She and my mother were kindred spirits. Sisters. And after my mother passed, Godmother’s role in my life was amplified. I constantly felt her spirit over me.
“I was sitting at the table working when I got this overwhelming feeling to watch ‘Miss Jane Pittman.’ I hadn’t seen the movie in years. I didn’t even understand the feeling to turn it on, but I did anyway,” he wrote in a touching Instagram tribute.” Not 12 minutes into the movie my phone rang. It was Oprah calling to tell me that Cicely had died.” “grandmother I never had.”
“To think that she lived for 96 years and I got to be a part of the last 16 brings me great joy,” he wrote. “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. Always so regal, always so classy, always a lady, always a queen.” – Tyler Perry
