Cicely Tyson Movies
One of America's most respected dramatic actresses, Cicely Tyson has worked steadily as a television, film, and stage actress since making her stage debut in a Harlem YMCA production of Dark of the Moon in the 1950s. The daughter of Caribbean immigrants, Tyson was raised in Harlem. After working as a secretary and a successful model, she became an actress, landed her first jobs in off-Broadway productions, and eventually made it to the Great White Way in the late '50s.Tyson got her first real break in 1963, playing a secretary to George C. Scott on the TV series East Side/West Side, and in 1966 signed on with the daytime soap The Guiding Light. That same year, she made her credited screen debut starring opposite Sammy Davis Jr. in the drama A Man Called Adam (her first uncredited film role was in 1959's Odds Against Tomorrow). More film, television, and stage work followed, but Tyson did not truly become a star until her Oscar-nominated performance in the Depression drama Sounder (1972). An unusual beauty with delicate features, expressive black eyes, and a full, wide mouth, Tyson next hid her good looks beneath layers of old-age makeup to convincingly portray a 110-year-old former slave who tells her extraordinary life story in The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1974). A well-wrought effort, it won Tyson her first Emmy for her title role, which required her to age 91 years on the screen.
Tyson subsequently had great success on television, particularly with her role in the legendary miniseries Roots (1977) and her work in The Women of Brewster Place (1989). She also continued to do a fair amount of film work, appearing in films like Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All (1994), The Grass Harp (1995), and Hoodlum (1997). In 1997, Tyson again donned old woman's makeup to offer a delightfully crotchety version of Charles Dickens' Scrooge in the 1997 USA Network original production Ms. Scrooge. Two years later, she had another television success -- and another Emmy nomination -- with A Lesson Before Dying, a drama set in the 1940s about a black man sentenced to death for a murder he did not commit. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Angela Bassett plays the title role in this meticulously detailed biography of pioneering civil rights activist Rosa McCauley Parks. Even as a child, Rosa stands separate from her fellow African-Americans; instead of being shipped off to a shabby public school, she is enrolled in a private classroom run by Quakers, who encourage the girl to transcend the severe limitations of legalized segregation in her home state of Alabama. In her late teens, Rosa marries barber Raymond Parks (Peter Francis James), a politically savvy and outspoken proponent of equal rights for all. For many years suffering in silence as the iniquities of the South's Jim Crow laws consign her to second-class-citizen status, Rosa finally joins the local branch of the NAACP with the encouragement of her childhood friend Rebecca "Johnnie" Carr (Tonea Stewart) -- much to the dismay of husband Raymond, who feels that the organization is ineffective in its ongoing battle against the white power structure. Rosa's personal struggle against institutionalized racism reaches its zenith on the night of December 1, 1955, when, bone-weary after a long day's work as a seamstress at a Montgomery department store, she refuses to give up her seat on a bus to a white man -- and is promptly arrested. Thus are the wheels set in motion for the first major Civil Rights demonstration of the 1950s, with Rosa rising to heroic status in the eyes of her people, an event that also profoundly alters the life of local religious leader Martin Luther King Jr. (played by the Reverend's son, Dexter Scott King). Mostly filmed on location in Alabama, The Rosa Parks Story features Cicely Tyson as Rosa's strong-willed mother Leona and Mrs. Parks' longtime friend Rebecca Daniels Carr in a cameo role. The film was shown as part of CBS' celebration of Black History Month on February 24, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Bassett, Peter Francis James, (more)
- 2001
Based on fact, the made-for-TV drama Jewel begins in 1945, a time when children afflicted with Down Syndrome were casually and cruelly dismissed as "Mongoloid Idiots." Already a mother with four healthy, normal children, 40-year-old Mississippi woman Jewel Hilburn (Farrah Fawcett) gives birth to daughter Brenda Kay, a Down's baby who will forever be challenged both mentally and physically. Urged by the local authorities to surrender Brenda Kay to an institution, Jewel defies the "experts" and packs herself and her family off to Los Angeles, where she hopes that her daughter will have a better chance at a normal life. But in her zeal to shower affection and attention on her "different little girl", Jewel sorely strains her relationships with her husband Leston (Patrick Bergin) and her other four kids. Cicely Tyson makes what the CBS publicity flacks labeled a "special appearance" in the role of a loving caregiver named Cathedral. Based on the novel by Bret Lott, Jewel originally aired February 7, 2001. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2000
Cicely Tyson guest stars as frail but feisty septugenarian Abigail Jackson, who is urged by Monica (Roma Downey) and the angels to consider moving into a posh retirement community. Terrified at "losing" his mom (even though he's got a family of his own), Abigail's pathologically dependent son Phillip (Sherman Augustus) will stop at nothing to prevent her from moving into the community--even going so far as to freeze the old woman's bank account! All this intrigue is played against a secondary story about a brilliant but reclusive artist named Lois (Tonea Stewart), who is coaxed out of her shell by an ebullient graffiti artist named Ramone (Rick Gonzales). Series star Della Reese (Tess) wrote the script for this episode, using her married name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1999
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A major earthquake brings the City That Never Sleeps to a screeching halt in this made-for-TV suspense drama. New York City Mayor Lincoln (Charles S. Dutton) and Fire Chief Ahearn (Tom Skerritt) are contentious political rivals forced to set aside their differences and work together when a catastrophic earthquake rips into the city. Lincoln's urgency to dig the city out of the rubble becomes personal when he learns that his daughter Evie (Lisa Nicole Carson) is trapped in a buried subway car -- what's more, one of her fellow passengers is a murder suspect who has just won acquittal, but whom the mayor believes may have been guilty. Elsewhere, Dori (Sharon Lawrence) is a mother who, after accidentally injuring her child in an auto accident, becomes all the more panicked when she learns that her boy is trapped inside a damaged school building that could turn deadly in the event of an aftershock. Originally aired in November 1999, Aftershock: Earthquake in New York also features Cicely Tyson, Erika Eleniak, Jennifer Garner, and Fred Weller. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Skerritt, Sharon Lawrence, (more)
Michael Apted (Gorillas in the Mist) directed this Walter Mosley script adaptation of Mosley's short story collection, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Ex-con Socrates Fortlow (Laurence Fishburne) returns to L.A., looks for work, becomes friends with Right Burke (Bill Cobbs), is told he's too old for a construction job, helps youngster Darryl (Daniel Williams), and romances cafe-owner Iula Brown (Natalie Cole). Socrates provides a moral uplift to the neighborhood, while Burke's voiceover narration has a Sunset Boulevard twist. The TV movie premiered March 21, 1998 on HBO. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Fishburne, Bill Cobbs, (more)
This four-hour miniseries is based on author Alex Haley's continuing family saga. Covering the 1920s-1970s, the story centers on Mama Flora, the matriarch of a large black family who is determined to keep her brood together and close to their God during rapidly changing and tempestuous times. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cicely Tyson, Queen Latifah, (more)
- 1997
In 1974, Cicely Tyson and director John Korty (The Ewok Adventure) worked together on the acclaimed The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (winner of nine Emmys), and they reteamed for this updating of Charles Dickens' 1843 classic, A Christmas Carol. When miserly banker Ebenita Scrooge (Tyson) is visited by the Ghost of Christmas Past (Michael J. Reynolds), visions prompt her to reflect on her life. An earlier female Scrooge was played by Susan Lucci in 1995, and a Mrs. Scrooge with Sally Kellerman is also in development. The TV movie Ms. Scrooge premiered December 10, 1997 on the USA Network. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cicely Tyson, Katherine Helmond, (more)
- 1996
In this heartwarming drama, a dying widow "abducts" a trio of women suffering from Alzheimer's disease and embarks upon a journey to the title Texas town in order to fulfill her lifelong fantasy of seeing the ocean. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cicely Tyson, Tess Harper, (more)
Filmed on location in South Carolina, The Price of Heaven represents one of the forays into the realm of made-for-TV movies by celebrated director Peter Bogdanovich. The story takes place in the early 1950s, as Korean war hero Jerry Shand (Grant Show) returns to his Southern hometown. Aspiring to medical school, Jerry lands a low-paying but steady job selling funeral insurance to the local black community. When ordered to collect back premium payments from the elderly and impoverished Vesta Battle (Cicely Tyson in a virtual reprise of her "Miss Jane Pittman" characterization), Jerry is prevented from doing so by his newly awakened compassion and social consciousness--thereby placing his job, and his entire future as a "good Southerner", in jeopardy. On a more personal level, Jerry is torn between love for his childhood sweetheart, whose family runs a local laundry, and lust for the predatory daughter of a wealthy cotton-mill owner (shades of Bette Davis!) Based on a novella by Allan Gurganus and first telecast over the CBS network on August 17, 1997, The Price of Heaven has since been shown on cable TV under the title Blessed Assurance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Grant Show, Lori Loughlin, (more)
- 1994
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Originally a television mini-series, this drama chronicles the painful and lively reminiscences of a 100 year old woman. Much of the story centers on her tumultuous marriage to a Civil War vet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Diane Lane, Donald Sutherland, (more)
- 1993
Mimi Leder, director of several 1990s action-adventure flicks directed this made-for-television drama. Melissa Gilbert-Boxleitner stars as Marion Ravinel, a wife who conspires to kill her husband with the aide of his ex-lover. The film is based on the story featured in several movies, including Diabolique. Gilbert-Boxleitner's real-life husband Bruce Boxleitner stars as her abusive husband. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Boxleitner, (more)
- 1992
A woman loses her son and brother in a mysterious accident which yielded no bodies. Understandably distraught, she is hardly prepared to confront her "dead" brother, now hale and hearty. But the man insists that he's never seen her before. Together with her husband, our heroine investigates this puzzler, uncovering an insidious plot to create a "new" race of humans by wiping out their memory banks. Kim Griest, Gregory Harrison, Cicely Tyson and Kevin McCarthy star in the made-for-TV Duplicates, which made its debut over the USA Cable Network on March 18, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Based on a true story, once again we have a tale of a battered homemaker who seeks help from the deaf ear of bureaucracy when she feels that she must protect herself and her children from her abusive husband. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michele Lee, James Farentino, (more)
Set during the Watts riots of the mid-'60s, the made-for-cable Heat Wave follows the story of Los Angeles Times reporter Robert Richardson (Blair Underwood), who was the only journalist on staff able to cover the story, since White reporters were unable to gain access to the area and the rioters. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blair Underwood, Cicely Tyson, (more)
- 1990
This made-for-TV drama--Sammy Davis, Jr.'s last--stars Trent Cameron as a young orphan who must fight against social workers in order to remain with his adoptive father, a widowed jazzman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
Based on the novel by Gloria Naylor, The Women of Brewster Place was produced by and stars Oprah Winfrey. The film concerns a variety of women who live in the housing project located on Brewster Place, and tells about their lives as they struggle in the face of racism, poverty, and troublesome men. Winfrey portrays Mattie Michael who was kicked out of her parent's (Paul Winfield and Mary Alice) house after refusing to reveal the name of her soon-to-be-born child's father. She eventually inherits a house, but loses it after her son skips bail. Robin Givens plays Kiswana, a focused woman who does her best to improve the situations of those around her. During a conversation with her mother (Cicely Tyson), Kiswana learns how her decision to change her name from Melanie is a betrayal of her family history. Cora Lee (Phyllis Stickney) craves being needed by babies and continues to have children, although she becomes neglectful as her children age. Miss Sophie (Olivia Cole) traffics in neighborhood gossip. Theresa and Lorraine (Paula Kelly and Lonette McKee) are a lesbian couple who live on Brewster Place because they believe the people in the neighborhood might let them live in peace. The Women of Brewster Place aired March 18-19, 1989, on the ABC television network. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Oprah Winfrey, Jackée, (more)
- 1986
Based on a true story, the made-for-television Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story is the tale of a Washington, DC-based Vietnam veteran (Martin Sheen) who fights for America's homeless by staging hunger strikes and battling with various government agencies, eventually winning the attention of several city officials. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The manager of a chemical plant and a city manager rise up against their respective bosses to keep a town safe in this ecologically conscientious made-for-TV disaster film. It all begins when the owners of Citichem order the plant manager to enact dangerous cost cuts that compromise the safety of the plant. He protests, but it is to no avail and a worker dies. At the same time, the city manager tries to warn the people that a deadly disaster is imminent, but he ends up gagged by the local politicians. Meanwhile, just when the community is at its most unprepared, a melt-down occurs and the town is drenched in deadly chemicals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Considering his later well-publicized involvement in "l'affaire Heidi Fleiss," Ivan Nagy was ideally suited to direct the-made-for TV Encounters in the Night. Even more prescient so far as Nagy is concerned is the film's original title: Intimate Encounters. Donna Mills plays an attractive young woman stuck in a blah marriage. To alleviate her ennui, she begins fantasizing about affairs with handsome strangers. It sounds like a romance novel and plays that way too. James Brolin, Veronica Cartwright and Cicely Tyson co-star in Encounters in the Night, which debuted September 28, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this drama, a disturbed teenager turns to arson in order to vent his anger and frustration over his parent's upcoming divorce. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Relying more on acting and attitude than makeup, Louis Gossett Jr. plays a cantankerous, fiercely independent old man in Benny's Place. A longtime employee of a steel mill, Gossett has set up his own tool repair operation within the mill, running things nicely, thank you, without the interference of his employers. He has rejected one white apprentice after another, but now is forced by affirmative action to accept an African-American assistant (David Harris)--whom Gossett suspects is being groomed to replace him. In his off-hours, Gossett juggles the affections of the two women in his life: a much-younger lady played by Anna Maria Horsford, and a mature lover closer to his own age, played by Cicely Tyson. Benny's Place was written by J. Rufus Caleb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When the story of the real-life Marva Collins was nationally telecast on 60 Minutes in 1979, residents of Chicago had been intimately familiar with the accomplishments of Ms. Collins for at least four years. After 14 years of teaching in Chicago's dead-end public school system, Marva used $5000 of her retirement money to open her own school. In 1975 she established Westside Preparatory School--in her own West Side home, with a student body of six. There was no nonsense and no frills in Collins' school; she utilized pragmatism and common sense in her efforts to teach the six "incorrigibles" she'd inherited from Chicago's antediluvian school system. The Marva Collins Story traces Westside Prep's first year, during which, despite opposition from the teaching establishment and from her students' own parents, Ms. Collins managed not only to teach her kids to read, write and reason, but also to gain an appreciation for such literary giants as Chaucer and Shakespeare. To bolster her students' self-confidence, Marva had them stand up and give oral presentations of what they'd learned. While her technique was considered controversial (especially among those bleeding hearts who felt that students should never be forced to think), Marva Collins's school survived its first year; by the time this 1981 TV-movie was made, she was teaching 200 ghetto students in a sophisticated building complex. Narrated by Edward Asner and starring Cicely Tyson in the title role, the all-but-flawless Marva Collins Story was originally telecast as a Hallmark Hall of Fame special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
This 1979 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Cicely Tyson and features musical guest Talking Heads. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cicely Tyson, Talking Heads, (more)
