Cicely Tyson is a Golden Globe and an Academy Award nominated American actress. She is best known for her award winning roles in ‘Sounder’, ‘The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman’ and ‘The Help’. She started her acting career with theatre and Broadways and made her on-screen debut in the mid 50s with the film ‘Carib Gold’. She started with smaller roles and eventually graduated to bigger roles in the 60s as her popularity grew and she became part of some notable films such as ‘A Man Called Adams’, ‘The Comedians’, ‘Roots’ and ‘The Heart is a Lonely Hunter’.
The 70s brought her a massive career breakthrough with the film ‘Sounder’, which earned her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. Other notable Cicely Tyson films are ‘The Blue Bird’, ‘Hoodlum’, ‘Diary of a Black Mad Woman’, ‘Idlewild’ and ‘Madea’s Family Reunion’. In what is considered to be the best role of her later career, she appeared in the 2011 film ‘The Help’, for which she received nominations for many reputed film awards.
As for the career failures, there are a few bad films in the broad Cicely Tyson filmography such as ‘Because of Winn-Dixie’ and ‘Fried Green Tomatoes’.