For more than six decades, the legendary Cicely Tyson has carved a distinct and formidable path through Hollywood—one defined by integrity, artistry, and an unwavering commitment to portraying Black women with dignity and depth. Her body of work has not only transformed the landscape of American film and television but has opened doors wider for generations of Black actresses who followed in her footsteps. Among those she has profoundly shaped is the incomparable Viola Davis, who recently reflected on Tyson’s influence in an emotional tribute for Vanity Fair (Vanity Fair).

“Ms. Cicely Tyson is elegance personified. She is excellence. She is courage,” Davis wrote. “When I think of her, I think of the Stevie Wonder song: ‘Show me how to do like you. Show me how to do it.’”

Davis recalled first discovering Tyson as a young girl in Central Falls, Rhode Island. Her family lived in a tenement building with electricity in only one room, powering their TV through an extension cord stretched across the apartment. Sitting on the floor with her sisters, she watched Tyson’s extraordinary performance in the made-for-TV film The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman—a role in which Tyson portrayed a woman from her early 20s, enslaved on a Southern plantation, to nearly 110 years old as a participant in the civil rights movement. The transformation seemed impossible to Davis at the time. “Here was this woman who looked like me—and she was performing magic,” she wrote.

Tyson’s commitment to authentic, emotionally rich characters became the hallmark of her career. Born in Harlem to immigrant parents, she was discovered by an Ebony magazine photographer in her teens, launching a trajectory that would reshape Hollywood’s relationship with Black womanhood (The New York Times). Tyson was one of the earliest Black actresses to refuse stereotypical roles that demeaned or diminished her identity, insisting instead on portraying women with full humanity. Her stance—considered bold, even risky during the 1960s and 1970s—inspired a new standard of representation that reverberates across the industry today (NPR).

Davis described Tyson’s talent as transcendent: “She embodies the depth of a character—her history, her memory.” As a teenager, Davis fell in love with Tyson’s performances in Sounder, for which Tyson earned an Academy Award nomination; in Bustin’ Loose alongside Richard Pryor; and in the television film The Marva Collins Story. Later, while studying at the Circle in the Square Theatre School, Davis discovered archival photos of Tyson shining on Broadway in the 1960s, performing with icons like Alvin Ailey and Claudia McNeil in Tiger Tiger Burning Bright, and starring in Sidney Poitier’s staging of Carry Me Back to Morningside Heights (The Hollywood Reporter).

Years later, when Davis was cast as Annalise Keating in ABC’s How to Get Away with Murder, she knew there was only one woman capable of portraying Annalise’s mother: Cicely Tyson. Filming their scenes together became a deeply personal experience. Davis remembered sitting on the floor without makeup or a wig, while 91-year-old Tyson gently parted her hair—a gesture mirroring what countless Black mothers have done for their daughters across generations. “It took me right back to my childhood,” Davis said.

In one of their many private conversations, Tyson shared how she once received harsh criticism from some African American viewers during the 1960s for wearing her natural hair on the series East Side/West Side. “They said I was a disgrace to the race,” Tyson told her. Decades later, when Davis removed her wig on network television, she braced herself for backlash. Instead, she received overwhelming praise. Tyson reminded her of their shared courage: “You also took that wig off, and you also got a boatload of messages. But they were all positive.”

Reflecting on Tyson’s guidance and legacy, Davis invoked Shakespeare: “O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend the brightest heaven of invention.” She described Tyson as her muse—a woman who lit the path ahead, carrying a lantern so others could see.

Cicely Tyson’s impact is immeasurable. Her roles, her choices, and her unwavering resolve created a blueprint for truthful representation. She showed generations of Black women that their stories were worthy, beautiful, and powerful. As Davis and so many others attest, Tyson did more than act—she expanded possibility.

Ms. Tyson, thank you for being a beacon, a pioneer, and a living testament to the strength, grace, and brilliance of Black womanhood.