Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1352017
70 The Costume Designer Spring 2021 SCRAPBOOK Photo: Getty Images Cicely Tyson December 19, 1924–January 28, 2021 Cicely Tyson, groundbreaking actress on stage, screen, and television, died on January 28. She strove through her art to change the way that Black people—particularly Black women—are perceived, and refused to take demeaning parts. Although this led to a dearth of work early in her career, she went on to play over 100 roles, winning three Emmys, an honorary Oscar, a Tony, eight NAACP Image Awards, and many other awards from women's groups and civil rights organizations. A style icon and consummate actor, Tyson's approach to costumes was deeply organic. Lyn Paolo, costume designer for the last four seasons of How to Get Away with Murder, recalls, "I was always a little embarrassed to be dressing her as Ophelia, because we were thrifting it and going to Palace Costume, but she was very down to earth about her costumes. There was no artifice about her when it came to a character. She would come in looking like a million bucks and just embrace Ophelia." In a career that spanned seven decades, Tyson exuded dignity, grace, and strength. Antoinette Messam, who worked with Tyson in 2000, recounts, "Our film Jewel was about a poor family in rural Mississippi. She was a caregiver, and helped with cooking and keeping up the homestead. There was concern that her clothes were not dirty looking enough. She was offended, and rightly so, at the assumption that because she was poor, she should be dirty. Although poor, she kept herself together. She took issue but was able to have a very clear and professional conversation about what it meant to grow up in the South during those times. I really appreciated how she handled it with decorum and grace. I stood taller and was a little prouder to be working with and learning from her." Van Broughton Ramsey, who enjoyed a near three-decades-long working relationship and close friendship with Tyson, recalls her generosity. While they were on location in Texas near his hometown, he mentioned to Tyson that his mother was experiencing serious eye problems. "Cicely picked the phone up, called George and Barbara Bush, and said, 'Who is the best ophthalmologist in Houston?'" A dynamo who returned to both television and Broadway in her later years, Tyson never stopped working. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 2018, and the Television Hall of Fame in 2020. She received a career achievement Peabody Award in 2020, and her memoir, Just as I Am, was published in January 2021, two days before her death. by Alexandra Welker