The Cast of Roots

Cicely Tyson (Binta)

Born and raised in Harlem, it was Cicely Tyson's iconic beauty that got her noticed, but her talent made her a legend. She started out as a fashion model in the '50s. In 1963, she became one of the first black actors cast as a regular on a television series, in East Side/West Side. Her big break came in 1972 in the movie Sounder. That performance earned Cicely an Oscar® nomination. Five years later, she was cast as Kunta Kinte's mother, Binta, in Roots.

In 2011, Cicely appeared in The Help. She is currently working on films The Haunting in Georgia and I, Alex Cross, based on the novel by James Patterson.