Cicely Tyson’s 10 Best Movies, According To IMDB

Although she lived a long and incredible life, the world continues to reel over the loss of Hollywood titan Cicely Tyson at the age of 96. With her first screen credit coming in 1951, Tyson accrued nearly 100 big and small screen credits over her decorated seven-decade career, earning 14 Primetime Emmys and two wins, and an Oscar nomination to boot. She was an absolute screen legend.

Tyson appeared in her fair share of theatrical feature films, but she also spent much of her acting career making meaningful television movies. The pioneering actress also played Binta in Roots and Coretta Scott King in the TV series King. In loving memory, here is the best of Cicely Tyson’s screen legacy.

10 The Road To Gavelston (1996) 7.3/10

Tyson won an NAACP Image Award for her starring turn in The Road to Gavelston, a made-for-TV drama about a woman who finds a new inspirational lot in life at the age of 65.

Tyson plays Jordan Roosevelt, an elderly lady who takes the advice of a friend and enters a program at a foster home that requires her to take patients home with her and care for them there. Among the patients is an Alzheimer’s victim whose dying wish is to feel the ocean breeze for the first time, which Jordan helps her achieve.

9 The Rosa Parks Story (2002) 7.4/10

While Angela Bassett plays the title role in The Rosa Parks Story, Tyson plays her mother, Leona Edward McCauley. The TV movie is told in retrospect as Parks chronicles her experience facing blatant racial prejudice in 1955 Alabama.

Upon refusing to sit in the back of the bus and obey racial segregation laws of the time, Parks became a civil rights icon for standing up for herself, not bending, and being the figurehead for forcing a societal change in the wake of challenging racial divisions and promoting equality.

8 Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) 7.4/10

Although she went uncredited at the time, Tyson appears as a jazz club barkeep in Odds Against Tomorrow, the third acting credit of her career.

Directed by Robert Wise, the film tracks Dave Burke (Ed Begley), a criminal who hires two strangers to pull off a bank robbery. The men include Ingram (Harry Belafonte) and Slater (Robert Ryan), two hoods from different backgrounds who begin to botch the job over their prejudice of one another.

7 The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter (1968) 7.6/10

Alan Arkin and Sandra Locke scored Oscar nods for their performances in The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, a devastating drama about outsiders making a profound connection with each other.

Arkin plays John Singer, a Deaf and non-speaking jewelry engraver. When John’s only friend Spiro is sent to an institution, Singer agrees to move nearby and look after Spiro. John also helps translate a Deaf and non-speaking patient for Dr. Copeland (Percy Rodriguez), a segregationist who regrets that his daughter Portia (Tyson) works as a housekeeper.

6 Sounder (1972) 7.6/10

Tyson nabbed the lone Oscar nomination of her illustrious career for her starring role in Sounder, a Depression-era drama set in the deep south. The film was also nominated for Best Picture.

Directed by Martin Ritt, Sounder revolves around the Morgan family, sharecroppers living in 1933 Louisiana. When the family patriarch Nathan Lee Morgan (Paul Winfield) is arrested and sent to jail for a misdemeanor, his wife Rebecca (Tyson) makes the difficult decision to send her eldest son David (Kevin Hooks) to visit Nathan in a distant prison camp.

5 Just An Old Sweet Song (1976) 7.7/10

Based on the novel by Melvin Van Peebles, Just an Old Sweet Song is a 1976 made-for-television movie that reunites Cicely with her Sounder co-star Kevin Hooks.

Also named for the classic Ray Charles song Georgia On My Mind, the film traces a Black family from Detroit whose fortnight vacation to the deep south changes their lives in profound ways. Tyson and Robert Hooks play the parents of the family whose viewpoints are challenged when entering a new environment.

4 Fried Green Tomatoes (1991) 7.7/10

From 1981 to 1991, Tyson spent a full decade without making a theatrical feature film. When she finally returned to the big screen in 1991, she did so with the beloved southern dramedy Fried Green Tomatoes.

The film traces two elderly nursing home patients, Evelyn (Kathy Bates) and Ninny (Jessica Tandy), who recall their lives in the Alabaman town of Anderson. Ninny’s daughter Imogen (Mary Stuart Masterson) is married to the abusive Frank, whom she runs away from in terror. When Frank finds Imogen, her family cook Sipsey (Tyson) risks her own life to ensure Imogen’s survival.

3 The Marva Collins Story (1981) 7.8/10

Co-starring Morgan Freeman, The Marva Collins Story earned Tyson the fourth Primetime Emmy nod of her career. The uplifting tale centers on Marva Collins, a loving inner-city school teacher who uses radical methods to make a positive difference in the lives of her underprivileged students.

While struggling to get through to her students, Collins also faces backlash from the school administration that neither understands nor approves of her unique teaching methods.

2 The Autobiography Of Miss Jane Pittman (1974) 8.0/10

For her riveting role of Miss Jane Pittman, Tyson won two Primetime Emmy Awards. In addition to Best Lead Actress in a Drama, Tyson also won a Special Actress of the Year Award. The film won a total of nine Primetime Emmys.

Jane Pittman was a woman born into slavery in the southern U.S. in the 1850s. At an unbelievable 110 years of age, Pittman helped lead a much-needed Civil Rights movement over a century later in the 1960s. At age 50, Tyson played Pittman from ages 23-110 in a tour-de-force performance about the most important subject in American history.

1 The Help (2011) 8.0/10

According to IMDB, The Help is the best movie the great Cicely Tyson ever appeared in. With an 8.0/10 rating, the film currently ranks #245 on IMDB’s Top 250.

Set in 1960s Mississippi, the film revolves around the memoir written by Skeeter (Emma Stone), who vows to expose the town’s history from the perspective of her Black domestics. Tyson plays Constantine Bates, an elderly family servant who is fired by Skeeter’s family for no good reason. Octavia Spencer won an Academy Award for her role as Minnie in the film, although the film has been criticized as a problematic ‘white savior’ movie.