Chadwick Boseman of “Black Panther” Dead at 43

The news that Chadwick Boseman was dead at 43, which came to us on Friday, August 28^th, was very sad news, indeed. Boseman had been battling colon cancer for 4 years. He was married to Taylor Simone Ledward.

This young actor from Anderson, South Carolina, was a great one.  He was the son of Carolyn and LeRoy Boseman, African American immigrants from Sierra Leone and Nigeria. His portrayal of Jackie Robinson in the film “42” with Harrison Ford cemented him as a leading man in 2013, but Chadwick had been acting as far back as 2003, when he portrayed a character named Reggie Montgomery on “All My Children.”

Ironically, when he expressed reservations about the racial stereotypes inherent in the Reggie Montgomery character, he was replaced by his co-star in “Black Panther,” Michael B. Jordan.

All the way back to his high school days, Chadwick had been interested in directing and only began acting so he could learn how to interact with his cast. In his junior year of high school, in fact, he wrote a play entitled “Crossroads” following the death of a classmate.

After graduating from T.L. Hanna High School in 1995, Chadwick went on to attend Howard University in Washington, D.C., where one of his instructors was Phylicia Rashad. Chadwick and some fellow students had been accepted to attend the Oxford Mid-Summer Program at the British Drama Academy in London. Rashad approached Denzel Washington to help fund the students’ trip there.

Boseman also attended the New York City Digital Film Directing Academy in New York City and did some teaching in the city while living in Brooklyn, but eventually moved to Los Angeles in 2008.

By 2013, he was acting in the movies that he would define with his talent, as with his portrayal of King T’Challa in “Black Panther.”

I met Chadwick Boseman in Chicago in 2017 when he and other actors, such as Sterling K. Brown, appeared in support of “Marshall,” a film in which Boseman played the title role. He was kind and articulate in answering our questions and the cast was like a “Who’s Who” of current Black stars. He was luminous and had a real presence.

Boseman was a gracious and cordial “movie star,” as were the others present in October, 2017 at the Chicago International Film Festival that year. His very presence was impressive, especially since we now know that all the while he was making films like “Marshall,” the “Avengers” series, and “Black Panther” he was fighting this disease. Privately, Boseman was already battling the colon cancer that would ultimately take his life. He had been diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer, which increased to Stage IV cancer. He had surgeries and had endured radiation and surgeries all during the years when he was portraying characters like the King of Wakanda, T’Challa, in “Black Panther,” the “Avengers” series of movies, Thurgood Marshall in “Marshall” and a character in “Da 5 Bloods,” the 2020 Spike Lee film.

This disease claimed my own father many years ago, metastasizing from the colon to his liver and other organs, eventually even invading his brain. It is my fervent hope that this tragic loss will cause others to have frequent colonoscopies to find and cure the colon cancer that, if caught in time, is survivable.

If not caught in time, it can claim the life of even such a specimen as Chadwick Boseman. General recommendations are to have such tests beginning at age 50, but obviously that is not always soon enough if there is a family history.

Once that family history exists, the general recommendation is to have colonscopies every three years, rather than the normal every five years. Katie Couric’s husband died young from colon cancer, and she would echo my hope that this unnecessary death of such a talented young man might spur all of us to be vigilant.

Chadwick Boseman’s words to a graduating class: “Purpose is why you are here on the planet at this particular time in history. The struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.”

Films from Wikipedia.org:

2008	The Express: The Ernie Davis Story	Floyd Little	Gary Fleder		[64]
2012	The Kill Hole	Lt. Samuel Drake	Mischa Webley		[65]
2013	42	Jackie Robinson	Brian Helgeland		[64]
2014	Draft Day	Vontae Mack	Ivan Reitman		[66]
2014	Get on Up	James Brown	Tate Taylor		[64]
2016	Gods of Egypt	Thoth	Alex Proyas		[67]
2016	Captain America: Civil War	T’Challa / Black Panther	Anthony & Joe Russo		[68]
2016	Message from the King	Jacob King	Fabrice Du Welz	Also executive producer	[69]
2017	Marshall	Thurgood Marshall	Reginald Hudlin	Also co-producer	[70]
2018	Black Panther	T’Challa / Black Panther	Ryan Coogler		[71]
2018	Avengers: Infinity War		Anthony & Joe Russo		[72]
2019	Avengers: Endgame				[73]
2019	21 Bridges	Andre Davis	Brian Kirk	Also producer	[74]
2020	Da 5 Bloods	Norman Earl “Stormin’ Norm” Holloway	Spike Lee		[75]
TBA	Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom	Levee	George C. Wolfe	Post-production; posthumous release	[76]

 

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
2003	All My Children	Reggie Porter	Recurring role	[24]
2003	Third Watch	David Wafer	Episode: “In Lieu of Johnson”	[77]
2004	Law & Order	Foster Keyes	Episode: “Can I Get a Witness?”	[77]
2006	CSI: NY	Rondo	Episode: “Heroes”	[78]
2008	ER	Derek Taylor	Episode: “Oh, Brother”	[77]
2008	Cold Case	Dexter Collins	Episode: “Street Money”	[77]
2008–2009	Lincoln Heights	Nathaniel “Nate” Ray	9 episodes	[79]
2009	Lie to Me	Cabe McNeil	Episode: “Truth or Consequences”	[80]
2010	Persons Unknown	Sergeant McNair	13 episodes	[78]
2010	The Glades	Michael Richmond	Episode: “Honey”	[81][82]
2011	Castle	Chuck Russell	Episode: “Poof, You’re Dead”	[78]
2011	Fringe	Mark Little / Cameron James	Episode: “Subject 9“	[83]
2011	Detroit 1-8-7	Tommy Westin	Episode: “Beaten/Cover Letter”	[84]
2011	Justified	Ralph Beeman	Episode: “For Blood or Money”	[78]
2018	Saturday Night Live	Himself	Episode: “Chadwick Boseman/Cardi B“	[85]
2021	What If…?	T’Challa / Black Panther / Star-Lord	Final role Guest voice role; posthumous release	[86]

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Nominated work	Result	Ref.
2017	Saturn Awards	Best Supporting Actor	Captain America: Civil War	Nominated	[87]
2018	MTV Movie & TV Awards	Best Performance in a Movie	Black Panther	Won	[88]
		Best Hero		Won
		Best Fight (Black Panther vs M’Baku)		Nominated
		Best On-Screen Team (with Lupita Nyong’o, Letitia Wright and Danai Gurira)		Nominated
2018	Saturn Awards	Best Actor		Nominated	[89]
2019	Screen Actors Guild Awards	Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture		Won	[90]
2019	NAACP Image Awards	Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture		Won	[91]
		Entertainer of the Year		Nominated
2020		Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture	21 Bridges	Nominated	[92]