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Chadwick
Boseman,
who
embodied
Black
icons,
dies of
cancer
By
RYAN
PEARSON
apnews.com
LOS
ANGELES
- First
Chadwick
Boseman
slipped
on the
cleats
of
Jackie
Robinson,
then the
Godfather
of
Soul’s
dancing
shoes,
portraying
both
Black
American
icons
with a
searing
intensity
that
commanded
respect.
When the
former
playwright
suited
up as
Black
Panther,
he
brought
cool
intellectual
gravitas
to the
Marvel
superhero
whose
“Wakanda
forever!”
salute
reverberated
worldwide.
As
his
Hollywood
career
boomed,
though,
Boseman
was
privately
undergoing
“countless
surgeries
and
chemotherapy”
to
battle
colon
cancer,
his
family
said in
a
statement
announcing
his
death at
age 43
on
Friday.
He’d
been
diagnosed
at stage
3 in
2016 but
never
spoke
publicly
about
it.
The
cancer
was
there
when his
character
T’Challa
visited
the
ancestors’
“astral
plane”
in
poignant
scenes
from the
Oscar-nominated
“Black
Panther,”
there
when he
first
became a
producer
on the
action
thriller
“21
Bridges,”
and
there
last
summer
when he
shot an
adaptation
of a
play by
his hero
August
Wilson.
It was
there
when he
played a
radical
Black
leader —
seen
only in
flashbacks
and
visions
— whose
death is
mourned
by
Vietnam
War
comrades-in-arms
in Spike
Lee’s
“Da 5
Bloods.”
Boseman
and
Taylor
Simone
Ledward
at the
2019
Screen
Actors
Guild
Awards.
(Photo
by Matt
Sayles/Invision/AP,
File)
“A
true
fighter,
Chadwick
persevered
through
it all,
and
brought
you many
of the
films
you have
come to
love so
much,”
his
family
said.
“It was
the
honor of
his
career
to bring
King
T’Challa
to life
in Black
Panther.”
Boseman
died at
his home
in the
Los
Angeles
area
with his
wife and
family
by his
side,
his
publicist
Nicki
Fioravante
told The
Associated
Press.
Boseman
is
survived
by his
wife and
a parent
and had
no
children,
Fioravante
said.
Born
and
raised
in South
Carolina,
where he
played
Little
League
baseball
and AAU
basketball,
Boseman
graduated
from
Howard
University
in
Washington,
D.C. He
wrote
plays,
acted
and
directed
in
theater
and had
small
roles in
television
before
landing
his
breakthrough
role.
His
striking
portrayal
of the
color-line-demolishing
baseball
star
Robinson
opposite
Harrison
Ford in
2013′s
“42”
drew
attention
in
Hollywood
and made
him a
star. A
year
later,
he wowed
audiences
as Brown
in the
biopic
“Get On
Up.”
Boseman
died on
a day
that
Major
League
Baseball
was
celebrating
Jackie
Robinson
day.
“His
transcendent
performance
in ‘42’
will
stand
the test
of time
and
serve as
a
powerful
vehicle
to tell
Jackie’s
story to
audiences
for
generations
to
come,”
the
league
wrote in
a tweet.
Expressions
of shock
and
despair
poured
in late
Friday
from
fellow
actors,
athletes,
musicians,
Hollywood
titans,
fans and
politicians.
Viola
Davis,
who
acted
alongside
Boseman
in “Get
On Up”
and the
upcoming
Wilson
adaptation,
said:
“Chadwick.....no
words to
express
my
devastation
of
losing
you.
Your
talent,
your
spirit,
your
heart,
your
authenticity.”
“He
was a
gentle
soul and
a
brilliant
artist,
who will
stay
with us
for
eternity
through
his
iconic
performances,”
said
Denzel
Washington,
who
funded a
scholarship
Boseman
used to
study
theater
at
Oxford
and
produced
the
upcoming
Wilson
film.
Disney
executive
chairman
Bob Iger
called
Boseman
“an
extraordinary
talent,
and one
of the
most
gentle
and
giving
souls I
have
ever
met.”
“Captain
America”
actor
Chris
Evans
called
Boseman
“a true
original.
He was a
deeply
committed
and
constantly
curious
artist.
He had
so much
amazing
work
still
left to
create.”
Democratic
presidential
nominee
Joe
Biden
tweeted
that
Boseman
“inspired
generations
and
showed
them
they can
be
anything
they
want —
even
super
heroes.”
Boseman’s
final
tweet
was an
image of
himself
and U.S.
Sen.
Kamala
Harris,
celebrating
her
selection
as
Biden’s
running
mate.
His
T’Challa
character
was
first
introduced
to the
blockbuster
Marvel
cinematic
universe
in
2016′s
“Captain
America:
Civil
War,”
and his
“Wakanda
forever”
salute
became a
pop
culture
landmark
after
the
release
of
“Black
Panther”
two
years
ago.
“I
don’t
think
the
world
was
ready
for a
‘Black
Panther’
movie
before
this
moment.
Socially
and
politically,
it
wasn’t
ready
for it,”
he told
AP at
the
time.
The
film’s
vision
of
Afrofuturism
and the
technologically
advanced
civilization
of
Wakanda
resonated
with
audiences,
some of
whom
wore
African
attire
to
showings
and
helped
propel
“Black
Panther”
to more
than
$1.3
billion
in
global
box
office.
It is
the only
Marvel
Studios
film to
receive
a best
picture
Oscar
nomination.
Boseman
said he
more
easily
identified
with the
film’s
antagonist,
played
by
Michael
B.
Jordan,
who had
been cut
off from
his
ancestral
roots:
“I was
born
with
some
Killmonger
in me,
and I
have
learned
to
T’Challa
throughout
my
studies,”
he told
AP while
promoting
the
film.
“It’s
the
place
where
you
start.
All
African
Americans,
unless
they
have
some
direct
connection,
have
been
severed
from
that
past.
There’s
things
that
cannot
be
tracked,”
he
continued.
“You
were a
product,
sold. So
it’s
very
difficult
as an
African
American
to
connect
at some
points
directly
to
Africa.
I have
made
that
part of
my
search
in my
life. So
those
things
were
already
there
when I
got into
the
role.”
The
character
was last
seen
standing
silently
dressed
in a
black
suit at
Tony
Stark’s
funeral
in
“Avengers:
Endgame.”
A “Black
Panther”
sequel
had been
announced,
and was
one of
the
studio’s
most
anticipated
upcoming
films.
Even
at the
outset
of his
Hollywood
career,
Boseman
was
clear-eyed
about —
and even
skeptical
of — the
industry
in which
he would
become
an
international
star.
“You
don’t
have the
same
exact
experience
as a
Black
actor as
you do
as a
white
actor.
You
don’t
have the
same
opportunities.
That’s
evident
and
true,”
he told
AP while
promoting
“42.”
“The
best way
to put
it is:
How
often do
you see
a movie
about a
black
hero who
has a
love
story
... he
has a
spirituality.
He has
an
intellect.
It’s
weird to
say it,
but it
doesn’t
happen
that
often.”
“Black
Panther,”
written
and
directed
by Ryan
Coogler,
helped
drive a
conversation
in
Hollywood
about
the
importance
of
featuring
non-white
characters
in and
hiring
non-white
filmmakers
for its
most
high-profile
films.
Actor
Simu
Liu,
starring
in
Marvel’s
first
film
centered
on an
Asian
character,
tweeted:
“Without
Chadwick,
and what
he gave
to his
character,
there is
no Shang
Chi.
Period.
My
career
rides on
the
coattails
of a
great
man.”
In
addition
to
Robinson
and
Brown,
Boseman
portrayed
the
future
U.S.
Supreme
Court
Justice
Thurgood
Marshall
in
2017′s
“Marshall.”
He
humanized
the
larger-than-life
historical
figures
with the
same
soulful,
reserved
dignity
—
interrupted
by
flashes
of
sparkling
wit —
that he
would
later
bring to
T’Challa.
He
took on
his
first
producing
job in
last
year’s
action
thriller
“21
Bridges,”
in which
he also
starred.
Boseman
completed
one last
performance,
in a
Netflix
adaptation
of
August
Wilson’s
“Ma
Rainey’s
Black
Bottom.”
He
revered
the
playwright
famous
for his
depiction
of the
Black
experience,
writing
in a
2013 Los
Angeles
Times
essay:
“For the
songs,
rituals
and
folklore
that
were
lost in
slavery’s
middle
passage,
his
plays
are
those
forgotten
songs
remixed
for the
struggles
of
adapting
to these
shores
... In
the
similar
way that
Wilson’s
work was
influenced
by the
blues of
Bessie
Smith,
Muddy
Waters
and W.C.
Handy,
my plays
were
infused
with
Tupac,
Biggie
and
Black
Star.”
Boseman
first
got into
theater,
acting
and
writing
plays as
an
undergrad
at
Howard.
He
visited
Africa
for the
first
time
during
college
with
director
and
theater
professor
Mike
Malone,
working
in Ghana
to
preserve
and
celebrate
rituals
with
performances
on a
proscenium
stage.
He told
AP the
trip had
been
“one of
the most
significant
learning
experiences
of my
life.”
Boseman
had
roles on
TV shows
like ABC
Family’s
“Lincoln
Heights”
and
NBC’s
“Persons
Unknown,”
but
before
“42” he
had only
acted in
one
film,
2008’s
football
drama
“The
Express.”
Asked
about
his own
childhood
heroes
and
icons,
Boseman
cited
Black
political
leaders
and
musicians:
Malcolm
X,
Martin
Luther
King
Jr., Bob
Marley,
Public
Enemy, A
Tribe
Called
Quest
and
Prince.
While
deeply
private
and
often
guarded
in his
public
appearances
and
interviews,
he made
clear
that he
understood
the
significance
of his
work and
its
impact
on the
broader
culture.
At
the 2019
Screen
Actors
Guild
Awards,
“Black
Panther”
won best
ensemble,
electrifying
the
room.
Before
an
auditorium
full of
actors,
Chadwick
Boseman
stepped
to the
microphone.
He
quoted
Nina
Simone:
“To be
young,
gifted
and
black,”
and put
the
moment
in
context.
“We
know
what
it’s
like to
be told
there
isn’t a
screen
for you
to be
featured
on, a
stage
for you
to be
featured
on. ...
We know
what’s
like to
be
beneath
and not
above.
And that
is what
we went
to work
with
every
day,”
said
Boseman.
“We knew
that we
could
create a
world
that
exemplified
a world
we
wanted
to see.
We knew
that we
had
something
to
give.”
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