Passage: Cicely Tyson and Cloris Leachman
It happened this past week ... the loss of two great stars of stage and screen.
Cloris Leachman died Wednesday.
As a dramatic actress she won an Oscar for "The Last Picture Show."
But it is for her comic roles that she'll be best remembered, including "Young Frankenstein" opposite Gene Wilder in 1974:
And, the CBS sitcom "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," where her portrayal of Mary's landlady Phyllis won her two Emmys.
Cloris Leachman was 94.
See also:
- Cloris Leachman knows just how to serve it up ("Sunday Morning," 11/22/15)
Harlem-born, Tyson was a powerful performer, and a tireless champion of civil rights. She played a sharecropper's wife in the film "Sounder," and she won two Emmys for her portrayal of a woman whose life spanned both slavery and freedom in a CBS television movie, "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman":
Recently, Tyson's return to Broadway in 2013 in "The Trip to Bountiful" made her the oldest-ever Tony Award-winner.
Tyson spoke with "CBS This Morning" co-host Gayle King just days before she died: "I made up my mind that I could not afford the luxury of just being an actress; I would use my career as my platform."
She received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2015, the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2016, and an honorary Oscar in 2018.
Cicely Tyson was 96 years old.
See also:
- Cicely Tyson: A journey home ("Sunday Morning," 4/14/13)
