LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Cicely Tyson: Lesson Before Dying
built 640 days ago
Synopsis: Don Cheadle, Mekhi Phifer, and Cicely Tyson star in this drama set in the 1940s about a black man sentenced to death for a crime he did not commit and teacher who is to counsel him as he awaits execution. A Lesson Before Dying is based on a novel by Ernest J. Gaines. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie GuideRead More
Source:
Tyson continued to appear regularly in made-for-television movies throughout the late 90’s and early 00’s. After appearing as the guardian to a secret lost city discovered by survivors of a plane crash in “Bridge of Time†(ABC, 1997), she played Luvia in the modern urban fable “Always Outnumbered†(HBO, 1998), about a tough ex-convict (Laurence Fishburne) who is determined to understand the violence and anarchy that rages in his world and inside himself. In “A Lesson Before Dying†(HBO, 1999), an adaptation of the period novel by Ernest James Gaines, Tyson played the aunt of a teacher (Don Cheadle) sent to help a man (Mekhi Phifer) falsely accused of murder to die with dignity. Then in “Jewel†(CBS, 2001), a period drama set in rural Mississippi, Tyson played Cathedral, the house servant of a backwoods mother (Farrah Fawcett) who predicts her new child will be the harbinger of troubled times sent by God. In “The Rosa Parks Story†(CBS, 2002), Tyson was the strong-willed mother of the woman whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the most successful and revered non-violent protest in American history.
Source:
The 1990s and 2000s found Tyson back on the large and small screens in several highly acclaimed projects. She wowed critics and fans alike with her stunning portrayals of strong black women in the motion pictures Fried Green Tomatoes, Hoodlum, and Because of Winn-Dixie, and the television miniseries Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, for which she won another Emmy. As with the early years of her career, Tyson found more television than film work, and appeared in such television features as Sweet Justice, in which she played a gutsy southern lawyer; Road to Galveston, in which she portrayed a fictionalized story of a woman who realizes her dreams after being widowed; A Lesson Before Dying, in which she portrayed the aunt of a man sentenced to death for a crime he didn't commit; and The Rosa Parks Story, in which she played Parks' strong, supportive mother.
Source:
MORE ABOUT
Lesson Before Dying