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Cicely Tyson: Roles
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Cicely Tyson (born December 19 , 1933 ) is an award-winning African-American actress, who tried to shave 9 years off her age, claiming 1942 as her year of birth in the pre-Internet age. Her devoutly Christian parents came from the island of Nevis in the West Indies, but Cicely was born and raised in Harlem, New York . She was discovered by a photographer for Ebony magazine , and became a popular fashion model. Her first film was an uncredited role in Carib Gold in 1957, but she went on to do television - the celebrated series East Side/West Side and the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light .
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In the early 1960s, Tyson became one of the few black faces to be seen regularly on television. Actor George C. Scott had admired her work in The Blacks and asked her to play a continuing role in his television series East Side/West Side, a CBS-TV series about social workers. The short, natural hairstyle she wore in that show caused a sensation and is often singled out as the beginnings of the Afro trend. According to Ms. , "the first young black actress to face film and television cameras with hair unstraightened...provoked a not-too-minor earthquake within the American minds of young black women.... All black women needed was some public person to take the first step toward a more positive identification with African beauty. And that person was Cicely Tyson."
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Tyson, the daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis, grew up in a devoutly religious household in Harlem. Discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony magazine, she quickly rose to the top of the modeling world. In 1957 she began acting in Off-Broadway productions. She had minor roles in a few feature films before her role as Portia in the film version of Carson McCuller's The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1968).
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The daughter of immigrants from the Caribbean island of Nevis, Tyson grew up in a religiously devout household in New York City’s Harlem. Discovered by a fashion editor at Ebony magazine, she quickly rose to the top of the modeling world. She began appearing in Off-Broadway productions in 1957, and during the 1961-62 season, she won the Vernon Rice Award twice for her roles as strong black women in Moon on a Rainbow Shawl and The Blacks.
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Tyson was discovered by a photographer for Ebony magazine, and became a popular fashion model. Her first film was an uncredited role in Carib Gold in 1957, but she went on to do television - the celebrated series East Side/West Side and the long-running soap opera The Guiding Light.
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A striking woman, Tyson was approached to model by the fashion editor of Ebony magazine. In a blink, her parents were shocked to see their lovely daughter gracing the covers of different publications. Soon, she was encouraged to audition for Off-Broadway shows and made her feature film debut in an uncredited role in 1957's "Carib Gold."
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