When we ever think of graceful actress, Cicely Tyson, we can think of many wonderful words to describe her: the beautiful, wise, charismatic, bold, unforgettable actress who brought to life some of the most emotional characters in the history of movie, but never would we think of her as having a Muhammad Ali/George Foreman “Rumble in the Jungle” moment.
You may recall, Cicely and late jazz icon, Miles Davis, were tied knot to each other from 1981 to 1988. It was during that time, according to Davis, that Ms. Tyson ended up losing her cool…suddenly beating the brakes off of a lady while she was at the height of her career!
Some of the detail of the Cicely Tyson beat-down incident Miles Davis explained in his book, “Miles”:
Mikes Davis wrote, “things began to get really worse with Cicely over an incident with a lady, a white woman, who was just a friend of mine. I had met her one day in the elevator of the building where Cicely and I lived on 5th Avenue and 79th Street. It was in 1984, and I was on crutches from my hip surgery. We just started talking and became very close friends. That was it. I would say hello and stop to talk with her whenever I saw her. Basically, Cicely got jealous of her. Finally one day she jumped the woman in broad daylight and beat her up. The lady had her 7-year-old son with her. Cicely thought I was going with the woman. But I wasn’t.”