America doesn’t have a system of knights or dames, as Britain, Australia and New Zealand do. If there were such a system, Cicely Tyson would have undoubtedly been honored. But Tyson, who died on Thursday, a month after her 96th birthday, didn’t need any government-sanctioned titles: Admirers such as Ava DuVernay, Tyler Perry and Shonda Rhimes call her Queen Cicely, which was much more appropriate for her.
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
Her 70-year career was filled with landmark works, including the film “Sounder” (1972) and TV’s “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1974), “Roots” (1977), “A Woman Called Moses”, and “The Trip to Bountiful” (2014), among many others. There was also her recurring role in “How to Get Away With Murder,” in which she was Emmy-nominated five times, most recently in 2020, for playing the mother of lead character Annalise Keating (Viola Davis).
In 2018, Whoopi Goldberg told Variety, “When you think about artistry and elegance in acting,...
- 1/29/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
Emmy- and Tony-winning actress Cicely Tyson, who distinguished herself in theater, film and television, died on Thursday afternoon. She was 96.
“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement. “Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.”
Her memoir “Just As I Am” was published on Tuesday.
Tyson broke into movies with the 1959 Harry Belafonte film “Odds Against Tomorrow,” followed by “The Comedians,” “The Last Angry Man,” “A Man Called Adam” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” Refusing to participate in the blaxploitation movies that became popular in the late ’60s, she waited until 1972 to return to the screen in the drama “Sounder,” which captured several...
“I have managed Miss Tyson’s career for over 40 years, and each year was a privilege and blessing,” her manager, Larry Thompson, said in a statement. “Cicely thought of her new memoir as a Christmas tree decorated with all the ornaments of her personal and professional life. Today she placed the last ornament, a Star, on top of the tree.”
Her memoir “Just As I Am” was published on Tuesday.
Tyson broke into movies with the 1959 Harry Belafonte film “Odds Against Tomorrow,” followed by “The Comedians,” “The Last Angry Man,” “A Man Called Adam” and “The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter.” Refusing to participate in the blaxploitation movies that became popular in the late ’60s, she waited until 1972 to return to the screen in the drama “Sounder,” which captured several...
- 1/29/2021
- by Carmel Dagan
- Variety Film + TV
A Road Less Traveled: Lemmons Lionizes Historical Icon Harriet Tubman in Safe Biopic
As the arrival of the first theatrical feature to properly pay homage to famed abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman finally comes to fruition in the guilelessly titled Harriet, one wonders what took so damn long. One of the few black women whose heroic contributions to human rights haven’t been completely erased or overlooked, a meditation on Tubman’s life has only previously been attempted over forty years ago in the Cicely Tyson led television event “A Woman Called Moses” in 1978. The significant pressures and difficulties in what eventually led to what should be a major cinematic event at last was inherited, finally, by the right hands, in director Kasi Lemmons, a trailblazer herself with her unforgettable and moody Gothic debut Eve’s Bayou.…...
As the arrival of the first theatrical feature to properly pay homage to famed abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman finally comes to fruition in the guilelessly titled Harriet, one wonders what took so damn long. One of the few black women whose heroic contributions to human rights haven’t been completely erased or overlooked, a meditation on Tubman’s life has only previously been attempted over forty years ago in the Cicely Tyson led television event “A Woman Called Moses” in 1978. The significant pressures and difficulties in what eventually led to what should be a major cinematic event at last was inherited, finally, by the right hands, in director Kasi Lemmons, a trailblazer herself with her unforgettable and moody Gothic debut Eve’s Bayou.…...
- 11/1/2019
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
When Kasi Lemmons got the chance to direct the first feature-length biopic about Harriet Tubman, she faced a delicate challenge. “I really wanted to create a film that a sophisticated 10-year-old could see with his grandmother, which isn’t easy for a film that takes place during slavery,” she said. “And then I wanted to really be able to represent Harriet as accurately as I could, while still making an entertaining movie that would reach a broad audience.”
Tubman’s extraordinary tale has been iconic for generations: Her escape from slavery and ability to free hundreds of slaves forever changed the course of history. But Lemmons’ situation helps to explain why it took so long for Hollywood to finally recognize the life and accomplishments of a legendary American freedom fighter.
Since the 1978 Cicely Tyson miniseries “A Woman Called Moses,” film and TV projects on Tubman have been floating around. The...
Tubman’s extraordinary tale has been iconic for generations: Her escape from slavery and ability to free hundreds of slaves forever changed the course of history. But Lemmons’ situation helps to explain why it took so long for Hollywood to finally recognize the life and accomplishments of a legendary American freedom fighter.
Since the 1978 Cicely Tyson miniseries “A Woman Called Moses,” film and TV projects on Tubman have been floating around. The...
- 10/28/2019
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
When Underground returns to Wgn America for season two on Wednesday, March 8, it’ll make history by presenting Harriet Tubman’s narrative onscreen for the first time since 1978, when Cicely Tyson played the abolitionist on the TV miniseries A Woman Called Moses. In the 39 years since, there’s been little of Tubman’s vast story -- from her escape from slavery to the Underground Railroad to her role as spy and military leader during the Civil War and, later, a suffragette -- presented, unless one counts her brief appearance on an episode of NBC's 1982 time-traveling series Voyagers! or in 2012’s Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, which even the film’s screenwriter, Seth Grahame-Smith, admitted was “sad.”
In fact, several versions of Abraham Lincoln’s story have appeared on TV and in theaters since 1978, with Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln earning Daniel Day-Lewis the 2013 Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the president. Even [link=nm...
In fact, several versions of Abraham Lincoln’s story have appeared on TV and in theaters since 1978, with Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln earning Daniel Day-Lewis the 2013 Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of the president. Even [link=nm...
- 3/8/2017
- Entertainment Tonight
It’s hard to believe that after all of these years one of the most famous figures in the history of the movement to end slavery, Harriet Tubman, hasn’t been portrayed on screen to the extent that she should have. In fact it on TV it was only once way back in 1978 in a miniseries called A Woman Called Moses. Then in 2012 she appeared in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. And let’s face it. Does the 2012 appearance even count? I mean Abraham Lincoln is fighting vampires. Come on now. You’ll recall that Harriet Tubman was “conductor” of the
Underground Season 2 Adds Harriet Tubman to the Cast...
Underground Season 2 Adds Harriet Tubman to the Cast...
- 2/2/2017
- by Nat Berman
- TVovermind.com
Viola Davis will star in, produce and exec produce a biopic on the life of Harriet Tubman, for HBO. The project, in early development, is the 3rd in a line of recently announced Tubman-related projects - including Wgn America's upcoming Underground Railroad-centered series titled "Underground," and Russell Simmons' own Tubman project, which he said he was developing, 2 years ago (no word on whether it's still in the works. I should mention the 1978 TV miniseries, "A Woman Called Moses," which was based on the life of Harriet Tubman, the escaped slave who helped to organize the Underground Railroad, and who led dozens of African Americans from enslavement in the...
- 4/28/2015
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
HollywoodNews.com: Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel to be honored at the Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony.
The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, are pleased to announce that the cast of DreamWorks Pictures and Participant Media’s “The Help” – Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel – will be recognized at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony with the “Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award.”
The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the 15th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place on the evening of Monday, October 24, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The Hollywood Film Awards Gala launches the awards season.
The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, are pleased to announce that the cast of DreamWorks Pictures and Participant Media’s “The Help” – Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Allison Janney, Chris Lowell, Ahna O’Reilly, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Sissy Spacek, Mary Steenburgen, Cicely Tyson and Mike Vogel – will be recognized at the Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony with the “Hollywood Ensemble Acting Award.”
The announcement was made today by Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the 15th Annual Hollywood Film Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place on the evening of Monday, October 24, 2011, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.
The Hollywood Film Awards Gala launches the awards season.
- 10/6/2011
- by Josh Abraham
- Hollywoodnews.com
Film and TV director made famous by his 'Gidget' surf movies
Despite a long and varied career, in which he made several excellent films noirs, westerns, thrillers and war dramas, and a fair number of superior television movies, it was the wry fate of the film and television director Paul Wendkos, who has died of a lung infection aged 87, that his death was announced widely with the words "Gidget director dies".
The popular teen surf movies – Gidget (1959), Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) – directed by Wendkos, are interesting documents of pre-hippy conservative California youth culture. Gidget, a contraction of girl and midget, is the nickname of a 16-year-old adolescent (played in succession by Sandra Dee, Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol) trying to cope with the problems of growing up, mainly defined by her relationship with her boyfriend, Moondoggie (James Darren).
According to the Variety review of...
Despite a long and varied career, in which he made several excellent films noirs, westerns, thrillers and war dramas, and a fair number of superior television movies, it was the wry fate of the film and television director Paul Wendkos, who has died of a lung infection aged 87, that his death was announced widely with the words "Gidget director dies".
The popular teen surf movies – Gidget (1959), Gidget Goes Hawaiian (1961) and Gidget Goes to Rome (1963) – directed by Wendkos, are interesting documents of pre-hippy conservative California youth culture. Gidget, a contraction of girl and midget, is the nickname of a 16-year-old adolescent (played in succession by Sandra Dee, Deborah Walley and Cindy Carol) trying to cope with the problems of growing up, mainly defined by her relationship with her boyfriend, Moondoggie (James Darren).
According to the Variety review of...
- 12/1/2009
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
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