Cicely Tyson won the Tony Award for Best Leading Actress in a Play on Sunday for her powerful performance as an elderly woman returning to her childhood home in "The Trip to Bountiful."
The revival of Horton Foote's play marks Tyson's own return to Broadway after a three-decade absence. "The Trip to Bountiful" marked her first Tony nod, despite a distinguished stage career in plays like "Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright" and "The Corn is Green."
She has won Emmy Awards for "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman" and "Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All," as well as an Oscar nomination for "Sounder."
The 79-year old Tyson beat out Laurie Metcalf as a neurologist losing her mental faculties in "The Other Place," Kristine Nielsen as a scatter-brained semi-recluse in "Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike," Amy Morton as a boozey college professor's wife in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" and Holland Taylor as the late Texas Gov. Ann Richards in "Ann."
