Cicely Tyson
Birthday: Born in 1924-12-19 in New York City, New York, USA
Deathday: 2021-01-28
Cicely Louise Tyson (December 19, 1924 – January 28, 2021) was an American actress. In a career which spanned more than seven decades in film, television and theatre, she became known for her portrayal of strong African-American women. Tyson received various awards including three Emmy Awards, a Screen Actors Guild Award, a Tony Award, an Honorary Academy Award, and a Peabody Award. Description above from the Wikipedia article Cicely Tyson, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
TV Credits
The F.B.I.
Character: Julie Harmon
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only....
The Situation Room With Wolf Blitzer
Character:
The command center for breaking news, politics and extraordinary reports from around the world. Patterned after the concept of the White House Situation Room, CNN's lead political anchor Wolf Blitzer hosts newsmakers and experts to discuss and analyze the stories that are driving today's news....
LIVE with Kelly and Mark
Character: Self - Guest
A morning talk show with A-list celebrity guests, top-notch performances and one-of-a-kind segments that are unrivaled on daytime television, plus spontaneous, hilarious and unpredictable talk....
Tamron Hall
Character: Self - Guest
Former news host and journalist Tamron Hall discusses all things topical and engages those she interviews in thorough meaningful and entertaining conversations....
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
Character: Ondine Burdett
In the criminal justice system, sexually-based offenses are considered especially heinous. In New York City, the dedicated detectives who investigate these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Special Victims Unit. These are their stories....
Naked City
Character: Darlene Knox
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic “semi-documentary” format. In 1997, the episode “Sweet Prince of Delancey Street” was ranked #93 on TV Guide’s “100 Greatest Episodes of All Time”....
The Bill Cosby Show
Character: Mildred Hermosa
The Bill Cosby Show is an American situation comedy that aired for two seasons on NBC's Sunday night schedule from 1969 until 1971, under the sponsorship of Procter & Gamble. There were 52 episodes made in the series. It marked Bill Cosby's first solo foray in television, after his co-starring role with Robert Culp in I Spy. The series also marked the first time an African American starred in his or her own eponymous comedy series....
Gunsmoke
Character: Rachel Biggs
Gunsmoke is an American radio and television Western drama series created by director Norman MacDonnell and writer John Meston. The stories take place in and around Dodge City, Kansas, during the settlement of the American West. The central character is lawman Marshal Matt Dillon, played by William Conrad on radio and James Arness on television....
Mission: Impossible
Character: Alma Ross
Mission: Impossible is an American television series that was created and initially produced by Bruce Geller. It chronicles the missions of a team of secret government agents known as the Impossible Missions Force. In the first season, the team is led by Dan Briggs, played by Steven Hill; Jim Phelps, played by Peter Graves, takes charge for the remaining seasons. A hallmark of the series shows Briggs or Phelps receiving his instructions on a recording that then self-destructs, followed by the th...
Emergency!
Character: Mrs. Johnson
The crew of Los Angeles County Fire Department Station 51, particularly the paramedic team, and Rampart Hospital respond to emergencies in their operating area....
Hallmark Hall of Fame
Character: Marva Collins
Hallmark Hall of Fame is an anthology program on American television, sponsored by Hallmark Cards, a Kansas City based greeting card company. The longest-running primetime series in the history of television, it has a historically long run, beginning during 1951 and continuing into 2013. From 1954 onward, all of its productions have been shown in color, although color television video productions were extremely rare in 1954. Many television movies have been shown on the program since its debut, ...
East Side/West Side
Character:
East Side/West Side is an American drama series starring George C. Scott, Elizabeth Wilson, Cicely Tyson, and later on, Linden Chiles. The series aired for only one season and was shown Monday nights on CBS. TV Guide ranked it #6 on their 2013 list of 60 shows that were "Cancelled Too Soon"....
Judd for the Defense
Character:
High-priced Houston lawyer Clinton Judd and his assistant Ben Caldwell take difficult cases throughout the U.S....
The Flip Wilson Show
Character: Self
The Flip Wilson Show is an hour long variety show that aired in the U.S. on NBC from September 17, 1970 to June 27, 1974. The show starred American comedian Flip Wilson; the program was one of the first American television programs starring a black person in the title role to become highly successful with a white audience. Specifically, it was the first successful network variety series starring an African American. During its first two seasons, its Nielsen ratings made it the nation's second mo...
Roots
Character: Binta
The epic tale of celebrated Pulitzer-prize winning author Alex Haley's ancestors as portrayed in the acclaimed twelve hour mini-series Roots, was first told in his 1976 bestseller Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The docu-drama covers a period of history that begins in mid-1700s Gambia, West Africa and concludes during post-Civil War United States, over 100 years later. This 1977 miniseries eventually won 9 Emmy awards, a Golden Globe award, and a Peabody award, and still stands as the mos...
The American Film Institute Salute to ...
Character: Self
In 1973 the American Film Institute initiated its Life Achievement Award, to be presented to a yearly recipient whose talent has fundamentally advanced the film art; whose accomplishments have been acknowledged by scholars, critics, professional peers and the general public; and whose work has stood the test of time....
The Outer Limits
Character: Justice Gretchen Parkhurst
Anthology series of composed of distinct story episodes, sometimes with a plot twist at the end, with occasional recurring story elements that were often tied together during season-finale clip shows....
The Oscars
Character: Self
An annual American awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the film industry. The various category winners are awarded a copy of a statuette, officially the Academy Award of Merit, that is better known by its nickname Oscar....
Saturday Night Live
Character: Self - Host
A late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels. The show's comedy sketches, which parody contemporary culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers an opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, and features performances by a musical guest....
B.L. Stryker
Character:
B.L. Stryker is an American detective drama that aired on ABC from February 13, 1989 to May 5, 1990 as part of the ABC Mystery Movie along with Gideon Oliver, Columbo and Kojak. The series was executive produced by Tom Selleck....
The F.B.I.
Character: Lainey Harber
The F.B.I. is an American television series that was broadcast on ABC from 1965 to 1974. It was sponsored by the Ford Motor Company, and the characters almost always drove Ford vehicles in the series. Alcoa was co-sponsor of Season One only....
The Courtship of Eddie's Father
Character: Betty Kelly
The Courtship of Eddie's Father is an American television sitcom based on the 1963 movie of the same name, which was based on the book written by Mark Toby. It tells the story of a widower, Tom Corbett, who is a magazine publisher, and his son, Eddie, who believes his father should marry, and manipulates situations surrounding the women his father is interested in. ABC had acquired the rights to the story; the series debuted on September 17, 1969, and was last broadcast on March 1, 1972. Bixby ...
Aftershock: Earthquake in New York
Character: Emily Lincoln
Without warning, an earthquake rips through the "City That Never Sleeps," turning it into a vulnerable state of chaos: skyscrapers topple, subways are buried in the rubble, countless lives are lost and loved ones are torn apart. As turmoil reigns in the screaming streets, Mayor Bruce Lincoln and former Fire Chief Thomas Ahearn race against time to enact a city-wide emergency plan....
People's Choice Awards
Character: Self - Presenter
An American awards show recognizing people in entertainment, voted online by the general public and fans....
King
Character: Coretta Scott King
The story of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stretching from his days as a Southern Baptist minister in the South of the 1950s until his assassination in Memphis in 1968....
A Woman Called Moses
Character: Harriet Ross Tubman
A television miniseries based on the life of Harriet Tubman, the escaped African American slave who helped to organize the Underground Railroad, and who led dozens of African Americans from enslavement in the Southern United States to freedom in the Northern states and Canada....
Dinah!
Character: Self
Dinah's show premiered 9 September 1974 and continued through to 4 September 1981. She started out the 70's with Dinah's Place which usually featured one guest and was more of a home oriented show about cooking, crafts and occasionally music. This format lasted until May of 1974. When the show came back in October of 1974 the format had changed drastically to a variety talk show which was called Dinah. and went on until 1981. This show was also known as "Dinah and Friends" during the summer of 1...
Cowboy in Africa
Character: Julie Anderson
Cowboy in Africa was an American Broadcasting Company television series produced during 1967-1968 by Ivan Tors and featuring Chuck Connors as the main actor. A 1966 television pilot show featuring Hugh O'Brian as Jim Sinclair, made into a movie and released to cinemas, was named Africa - Texas Style....
The Mike Douglas Show
Character: Self
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia....
The Mike Douglas Show
Character: Self - Co-Host
The Mike Douglas Show is an American daytime television talk show hosted by Mike Douglas that originally aired only in the Cleveland area during much of its first two years on the air. It then went into syndication in 1963 and remained on television until 1982. It was distributed by Westinghouse Broadcasting and for much of its run, originated from studios of two of the company's TV stations in Cleveland and Philadelphia....
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
Character: Self
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson is a talk show hosted by Johnny Carson under The Tonight Show franchise from 1962 to 1992. It originally aired during late-night. For its first ten years, Carson's Tonight Show was based in New York City with occasional trips to Burbank, California; in May 1972, the show moved permanently to Burbank, California. In 2002, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson was ranked #12 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time....
Cherish the Day
Character: Miss Luma Lee Langston
A chronicle of the stirring relationship of one couple, with each episode spanning a single day. The narrative will unfold to reveal significant moments in a relationship that compel us to hold true to the ones we love, from the extraordinary to the everyday....
The Proud Family
Character: Mrs. Maureen Parker (voice)
Follow the adventures and misadventures of Penny, a 14-year-old African American girl who's doing her best to navigate through the early years of teen-dom. Penny's every encounter inevitably spirals into bigger than life situations filled with hi-jinks, hilarity and heart. Her quest to balance her home, school and social lives are further complicated by friends like the sassy Dijonay, Penny's nemesis LaCienega Boulevardez, her loving, if not over-protective parents and her hip-to-the-groove-gran...
How to Get Away with Murder
Character: Ophelia Harkness
A sexy, suspense-driven legal thriller about a group of ambitious law students and their brilliant, mysterious criminal defense professor. They become entangled in a murder plot and will shake the entire university and change the course of their lives....
House of Cards
Character: Doris Jones
Set in present day Washington, D.C., House of Cards is the story of Frank Underwood, a ruthless and cunning politician, and his wife Claire who will stop at nothing to conquer everything. This wicked political drama penetrates the shadowy world of greed, sex and corruption in modern D.C....
Tony Awards
Character: Self - Host
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre....
Madam Secretary
Character: Flo Avery
After years away from the CIA, Elizabeth McCord is pulled back into the political arena. The newly appointed Secretary of State is tough, fair, and smart, driving international diplomacy, wrangling office politics, and circumventing protocol as she negotiates global and domestic issues, both at the White House and at home....
Tony Awards
Character: Self - Co-Host
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre....
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Character: Castalia
Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Her story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy-striper....
Touched by an Angel
Character: Abigail Peabody-Jackson
Monica, an angel, is tasked with bringing guidance and messages from God to various people who are at a crossroads in their lives....
Golden Globe Awards
Character: Self - Presenter
An annual awards ceremony recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign, bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association....
Tony Awards
Character: Self - Presenter
The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway productions and performances, and an award is given for regional theatre....
Movie Credits
Fried Green Tomatoes
Character: Sipsey
Amidst her own personality crisis, southern housewife Evelyn Couch meets Ninny, an outgoing old woman who tells her the story of Idgie Threadgoode and Ruth Jamison, two young women who experienced hardships and love in Whistle Stop, Alabama in the 1920s....
The Women of Brewster Place
Character: Mrs. Browne
A multigenerational story of the lives of several black women who call an inner-city tenement home....
Hoodlum
Character: Stephanie St. Clair
In 1934, the second most lucrative business in New York City was running 'the numbers'. When Madam Queen—the powerful woman who runs the scam in Harlem—is arrested, Ellsworth 'Bumpy' Johnson takes over the business and must resist an invasion from a merciless mobster....
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Character: Portia Copeland
Singer is a deaf-mute whose small world brings him in contact with a young girl, Mick, who cherishes a seemingly hopeless dream of becoming a concert pianist. At first hostile, Mick soon becomes friends with Singer, hoping to enlarge his small world. Three other central characters come to Singer for help also, each of them seeing in him a powerful force....
Bustin' Loose
Character: Vivian Perry
After ex-con Joe Braxton violates his probation, he is given a second chance. All he has to do is drive a group of special kids across the country....
Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story
Character: Muriel
Outraged by the treatment of New York City’s unhoused residents, an activist brings national attention to the issue by taking their case to Congress....
Odds Against Tomorrow
Character: Jazz Club Bartender (uncredited)
An old-time crook plans a heist. When one of his two partners is found out to be a black man tensions flare....
Always Outnumbered
Character: Luvia
An ex-con moves to L.A. to find work and creates a disturbance by fighting for a position. More importantly he touches the lives of many of his neighbors including an older man dying of cancer, a young married couple whose husband is too proud to accept a lesser position which causes strife with his wife, and a young boy on the verge of getting in trouble with street gangs....
Idlewild
Character: Mother Hopkins
A reticent piano player Percival, along with Rooster, his flamboyant lead performer and manager, struggle to keep their speakeasy, in the Prohibition-era South, out of the hands of gangsters who want to take it over....
Why Did I Get Married Too?
Character: Ola
Four couples reunite for their annual vacation in order to socialize and to spend time analyzing their marriages. Their intimate week in the Bahamas is disrupted by the arrival of an ex-husband determined to win back his recently remarried wife....
The Concorde... Airport '79
Character: Elaine
Aviation disaster-prone Joe Patroni must contend with nuclear missiles, the French Air Force and the threat of the plane splitting in two over the Alps....
Sounder
Character: Rebecca Morgan
The oldest son of a loving and strong family of black sharecroppers comes of age in the Depression-era South after his father is imprisoned for stealing food....
Madea's Family Reunion
Character: Myrtle
Southern matriarch Madea has a lot on her plate. Her nieces, Vanessa and Lisa, have relationship troubles - Vanessa moves into Madea's house with her 2 young children and Lisa is engaged to a controlling man that her mother set her up with. In addition, Madea has just been court-ordered to become the guardian of Nikki, a rebellious runaway teenager. Madea must keep the peace and her family together while simultaneously planning her clan's reunion....
Because of Winn-Dixie
Character: Gloria Dump
A girl, abandoned by her mother when she was three, moves to a small town in Florida with her father. There, she adopts an orphaned dog she names Winn-Dixie. The bond between the girl and her special companion brings together the people in a small Florida town and heals her own troubled relationship with her father....
The Help
Character: Constantine Jefferson
Aibileen Clark is a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson is an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan is a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to expla...
A Lesson Before Dying
Character: Tante Lou
In the 1940s South, an African-American man is wrongly accused of the killing a a white store owner. In his defense, his white attorney equates him with a lowly hog, to indicate that he didn't have the sense to know what he was doing. Nevertheless convicted, he is sentenced to die, but his godmother and the aunt of the local schoolteacher convince school teacher go to the convicted man's cell each day to try to reaffirm to him that he is not an animal but a man with dignity....
The River Niger
Character: Mattie Williams
An intimate look at life in the ghetto: Johnny Williams is a house painter who moonlights as a poet, struggling to financially and emotionally support his cancer-ridden wife Mattie. But times are tough and the poverty-troubled streets are even tougher, and it takes every ounce of Johnny's love and courage for the couple to make it through their strife, finding redemption in the River Niger....
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Character: Jane Pittman
In February, 1962, as the civil rights movement reaches Bayonne, Louisiana, a New York journalist arrives to interview Jane Pittman, who has just turned 110. She tells him her story dating back to her earliest memories before slavery ended. In between the chapters of her life, the present-day struggles of Blacks in Bayonne, urged on by Jimmy, are dramatized....
Alex Cross
Character: Nana Mama
Alex Cross, a genius homicide detective/psychologist is trying to clean up the mean streets of Detroit while keeping his family out of the line of fire. As he mulls over accepting a job with the FBI, he is told that a friend has been murdered and he vows to track down the killer. Soon, he and his team are forced to match wits with a psychotic contract killer, who displays a disturbing commitment towards seeing his job through....
The Blue Bird
Character: Tylette
Peasant children Mytyl and Tyltyl are led on a magical quest for the fabulous Blue Bird of Happiness by the fairy Berylune. On their journey, they're accompanied by the anthropomorphized presences of a Dog, a Cat, Light, Fire, and Bread, among other entities....
A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich
Character: Sweets
A troubled boy becomes addicted to heroin, and his mother and foster father help him fight it....
The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia
Character: Mama Kay
A young family moves into a historic home in Georgia, only to learn they are not the house's only inhabitants. Soon they find themselves in the presence of a secret rising from underground and threatening to bring down anyone in its path....
Ms. Scrooge
Character: Ms. Ebenita Scrooge
Television movie updating Charles Dickens' story, "A Christmas Carol." Businesswoman Ebenita Scrooge treats her employees and customers poorly. She has no time for Christmas or the holiday spirit. On Christmas Eve, she is visited by the ghost of her dead partner Maude Marley and then by other spirits who remind her of her happy past and chronicle the bitterness and greed that have taken over her life. At last, she is shown her own death and funeral. No one is there to mourn her. This revelation ...
Jewel
Character: Cathedral
In the 1940s a 40-year-old woman with five healthy children gives birth to a girl with Down's syndrome....
The Marva Collins Story
Character: Marva Collins
Cicely Tyson was Emmy-nominated as Outstanding Actress for her portrait of a Chicago schoolteacher whose remarkable achievements with black children labelled "unteachable" were spotlighted in a 1979 "60 Minutes" segment about how she became disillusioned with the traditional school system and decided to work outside of it, transforming her students into young scholars through her unique teaching style....
The Road to Galveston
Character: Jordan Roosevelt
Jordan Roosevelt, at 65, found herself alone, destitute, and depressed. Up against the wall, she took heart from the suggestion of a friend, a blind woman who was a nurse: enter a foster care program in which one takes care of patients in their own home. The patients she cares for are Alzheimers sufferers, and she shares her home with three other women in advanced stages of the disease, one (Gayle) wheelchair bound. And with these women, Jordan realizes a lifelong dream - to feel the ocean breez...
A Man Called Adam
Character: Claudia Ferguson
A famous jazz trumpeter finds himself unable to cope with the problems of everyday life....
The Trip to Bountiful
Character: Mrs. Watts
Carrie Watts begrudgingly lives with her busy, overprotective son, Ludie and pretentious daughter-in-law, Jessie Mae. No longer able to drive and forbidden to travel alone, she wishes for freedom from the confines of the house....
Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All
Character: Castralia
Lucy married at the turn of the last century, when she was fifteen and her husband was fifty. If Colonel William Marsden was a veteran of the "War for Southern Independence", Lucy became a "veteran of the veteran" with a unique perspective on Southern history and Southern manhood. Her story encompasses everything from the tragic death of a Confederate boy soldier to the feisty narrator's daily battles in the Home--complete with visits from a mohawk-coiffed candy-striper....
The Comedians
Character: Marie Therese
American and British tourists get caught up in political unrest in Haiti....
Heat Wave
Character: Ruthana Richardson
A rookie black journalist investigates the tensions of the Watts section of Los Angeles in the bloody summer of 1965....
Free to Be… You and Me
Character: Self
Free to Be…You and Me, a project of the Ms. Foundation for Women, is a record album, and illustrated book first released in November 1972, featuring songs and stories from many current celebrities of the day (credited as "Marlo Thomas and Friends") such as Alan Alda, Rosey Grier, Cicely Tyson, Carol Channing, Michael Jackson, and Diana Ross, among others. An ABC Afterschool Special using poetry, songs, and sketches, followed two years later in March 1974. The basic concept is to encourage a pos...
The Kid Who Loved Christmas
Character: Etta Mercer
In this sentimental holiday tale, a young boy is taken away from his loving, adoptive household when his new mom is killed in an auto accident and his traveling musician dad is deemed unfit to care for him, being on the road too much. Now, the only thing that can help is if a cold, bureaucratic adoption agency caseworker sees the error of her ways and allows them to be together....
Wilma
Character: Blanche Rudolph
The story of American track sprinter Wilma Rudolph, who overcame physical handicaps to win three gold medals in the 1960 Olympics....
Showing Roots
Character: Hattie
Set in the year 1977, two women look to integrate their small town, inspired by the miniseries "Roots" as it hits the airwaves....
Acceptable Risks
Character: Janet Framm
The manager of a chemical plant and a city manager rise up against their respective bosses to keep a town safe in this ecologically conscientious made-for-TV disaster film. It all begins when the owners of Citichem order the plant manager to enact dangerous cost cuts that compromise the safety of the plant. He protests, but it is to no avail and a worker dies. At the same time, the city manager tries to warn the people that a deadly disaster is imminent, but he ends up gagged by the local politi...
Relative Stranger
Character: Pearl
After the death of his father, a former football star reunites with the family that he abandoned years earlier....
The Last Angry Man
Character: Girl Left on Porch (uncredited)
Dr. Sam Abelman is a Jewish doctor contentedly spending his autumn years serving his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But when his nephew, would-be journalist Myron, writes an article about him, it draws the attention of a producer, Woodrow Thrasher, who believes Dr. Abelman a good candidate for a TV show. The doctor, however, is suspicious of the whole enterprise, thinking both Myron and Thrasher are simply out to make a fast buck....
Marriage: Year One
Character: Emma Teasley
A medical student marries a millionaire's daughter but insists they live on the money he earns....
Diary of a Mad Black Woman
Character: Myrtle
Charles, an attorney, and Helen, his devoted wife, seem to have everything – money, a beautiful mansion – the American Dream. However, as Helen prepares to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary, her life takes an unexpected twist when she comes home to find her clothes packed up in a U-Haul van parked in the driveway. Charles is divorcing her and kicks her out. Helen moves in with her grandmother Madea, an old woman who doesn't take any lip from anyone. Madea helps Helen through these tough t...
Duplicates
Character: Dr. Randolph
A family falls victim to a scientific institute that removes memories and transfers them to a computer....
Playing with Fire
Character: Carol Phillips
Gary Coleman stars as a teenage arsonist. The authorities, friends, and neighbors warn his absentee parents until it is too late....
Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise
Character: Self
A celebration of Dr. Maya Angelou by weaving her words with rare and intimate archival photographs and videos, which paint hidden moments of her exuberant life during some of America’s most defining civil rights moments. From her upbringing in the Depression-era South to her swinging soirees with Malcolm X in Ghana to her inaugural speech for President Bill Clinton, we are given special access to interviews with Dr. Angelou whose indelible charm and quick wit make it easy to love her....
Intimate Encounters
Character: Dr. Claire Dalton
It started as fantasy...and ended as intimate encounters....
Last Flag Flying
Character: Mrs. Hightower
Thirty years after serving together in the Vietnam War, Larry, Sal and Richard, reunite for a different type of mission: to bury Doc's son, a young Marine killed in Iraq. Forgoing the burial, the trio take the casket on a bittersweet trip up the coast to New Hampshire - along the way, reminiscing and coming to terms with the shared memories of a war that continues to shape their lives....
Fat Rose and Squeaky
Character: Celine
The Irish-willed eighty-year-old Bonnie Ash Fitzpatrick and her only friend in life, seventy-year-old Celine Snow disagree on just about everything. When Bonnie's long-lost niece, Christine, attempts to trick her out of her house, the two friends come up with a plan. Using Bonnie's association with the wacko neighbors (Fat Rose & Squeaky) as examples of her inability to safely care for herself, Christine's plan appears to be working. The friendship between Bonnie and Celine proves to be a gr...
The Women of Brewster Place
Character:
A multigenerational story of the lives of several black women who call an inner-city tenement home....
Blessed Assurance
Character: Vesta Lotte Battle
Upon his discharge following the Korean War, soldier Jerry moves back to the small town in South Carolina where he grew up. Jerry is reunited with his old flame Leslie, gets a job as an insurance salesman and begins to heal from the emotional damage caused by the war. But Jerry faces a serious moral dilemma when the job he depends on for his livelihood leads him to take advantage of an elderly African-American woman and the members of her community....
The Rosa Parks Story
Character: Leona Edwards McCauley
A seamstress recalls events leading to her act of peaceful defiance that prompted the 1955 bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama....
Neighbors
Character:
Racial tensions come out of the woodwork when an upper-class white couple puts their suburban home on the market and the listing draws a pair of equally well-to-do African American buyers from Harlem. Fielder Cook directs this Broadway staging of playwright Arkady Leokum's exploration of lingering racial prejudice in 1970s America....
And the Oscar Goes To...
Character: Self (archive footage)
The story of the gold-plated statuette that became the film industry's most coveted prize, AND THE OSCAR GOES TO... traces the history of the Academy itself, which began in 1927 when Louis B. Mayer, then head of MGM, led other prominent members of the industry in forming this professional honorary organization. Two years later the Academy began bestowing awards, which were nicknamed "Oscar," and quickly came to represent the pinnacle of cinematic achievement....
Just an Old Sweet Song
Character: Priscilla Simmons
Upon learning that their grandmother is not long for this world, Nate and Priscilla Simmons pack up their kids and leave Detroit to head down South. Eventually, the family rediscovers its African-American roots and elects to stay in their new rural surroundings....
Carib Gold
Character: Dottie
The hard-working but struggling crew of a shrimp boat discover a sunken treasure. Trouble ensues in this dramatic black-cast production....
A Fall from Grace
Character: Alice
When a law-abiding woman gets indicted for murdering her husband, her lawyer soon realizes that a larger conspiracy may be at work....
House of Secrets
Character: Evangeline
Marion Ravinel is trapped in an abusive spousal relationship. She forms a plan with her husband's former lover to kill him. However, the outcome turns out to be more than she planned on as she begins to believe that her husband has come back from the dead to get her....
To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry in Her Own Words
Character:
Excerpts from the 1969 Off-Broadway production at the Cherry Lane Theater of To Be Young, Gifted and Black: The World of Lorraine Hansberry, adapted by Robert Nemiroff, Hansberry's widower, and directed by Gene Frankel....
Benny's Place
Character: Odessa
Time begins to catches up to a tough factory worker who is feeling threatened by younger men at work and at play....
How It Feels to Be Free
Character: Self (archival footage)
Tells the inspiring story of how six iconic African American female entertainers – Lena Horne, Abbey Lincoln, Nina Simone, Diahann Carroll, Cicely Tyson and Pam Grier – challenged an entertainment industry deeply complicit in perpetuating racist stereotypes, and transformed themselves and their audiences in the process....
The Other Boys of Summer
Character: Narrator
The story of racism, segregation and Civil Rights in America told through the lives of the Negro League baseball players. Features exclusive interviews with the men who played alongside of Jackie Robinson....
Night of 100 Stars
Character: Self
The most glittering, expensive, and exhausting videotaping session in television history took place Friday February 19, 1982 at New York's Radio City Music Hall. The event, for which ticket-buyers paid up to $1,000 a seat (tax-deductible as a contribution to the Actors' Fund) was billed as "The Night of 100 Stars" but, actually, around 230 stars took part. And most of the audience of 5,800 had no idea in advance that they were paying to see a TV taping, complete with long waits for set and cost...