Cicely Tyson Gave Final Interview on ‘Live With Kelly and Ryan’ One Day Before Death

Groundbreaking Broadway actress and Oscar winner Cicely Tyson passed away on Thursday at the age of 96. Tyson left behind an undeniable legacy and was celebrating the release of her memoir Just As I Am, which hit shelves on Tuesday. Her final interview aired on Friday on LIVE with Kelly and Ryan, just a day after her death.

In the interview, Tyson talked about her role in Sounder, for which she earned an Oscar nomination in 1972, and how she got the part. “They said, ‘You’re too young, you’re too pretty, you’re too sexy, you’re too this, you’re too that,’” Tyson explained, “and I said ‘but I’m an actress.’” The role was then offered to Gloria Foster, who turned it down. When Tyson’s manager told her about Foster’s decision, Tyson replied “because it doesn’t belong to her.” While Tyson would lose the Oscar race to Liza Minelli for Cabaret, she was awarded a lifetime achievement Oscar in 2018.

Despite losing to Minelli, Tyson has only positive things to say about her Academy Awards experience. “The Almighty had other expectations of me, and I am grateful,” Tyson told hosts Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. “I never dreamed that I would receive an Oscar, because most of the work that I did was recognized highly on television. And so I had thrown the idea of possibly receiving an Oscar out of my mind.” Tyson explained that just attending the hallowed ceremony was an achievement of a lifelong dream. “Long before I even got into the business, I watched the Oscars, never dreaming that I would be sitting in the front row,” Tyson said. “But I did say one night while watching it… ‘One night, I am going to be sitting in that front row.’ And sure enough, I got to sit in that front row. And that was enough for me.”

Tyson told Ripa and Seacrest about her lifetime of clean living — no drinking, no smoking, no drugs — and how she was inspired to become a vegetarian after the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was so stunned by that, that I became a vegetarian and I’ve been that most of my life,” Tyson claimed.

Tyson also spoke briefly about her relationship with jazz legend Miles Davis, to whom she was married from 1981 to 1988. Tyson has largely kept the relationship private, saying that Davis needed someone “to save him from the life of destruction he was living.” Tyson claimed that Davis never truly understood his impact or how much he was loved before his death in 1991. “I did a lot of things with Miles in order to get him to understand that there was a better way for him to serve humanity,” Tyson said. “That he had a brilliant talent, people loved him. He had no idea of his talent. He really did not understand why people were fussing over him. He didn’t. And that’s what’s sad.”