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First Chadwick Boseman donned the Jackie Robinson dance shoes, then the Godfather of Soul dance shoes, portraying both African-American icons with a scorching intensity that commanded respect. When the former playwright disguised himself as Black Panther, he brought cool intellectual seriousness to the Marvel superhero whose “Wakanda Forever!” greeting resounded throughout the world.
Yet as his Hollywood career prospered, Boseman was privately undergoing “countless surgeries and chemotherapy” to fight colon cancer, his family said in a statement announcing his death at age 43 on Friday. He had been diagnosed at stage 3 in 2016, but he never spoke publicly about it.
The cancer was there when his character T’Challa visited the “astral plane” of the ancestors in poignant scenes from the Oscar nominee “Black Panther,” there when he first became a producer on the action thriller “21 Bridges. “, and last summer when he shot an adaptation of a play by his hero August Wilson. It was there that he played a radical black leader, seen only in flashbacks and visions, whose death is mourned by comrades in arms from the Vietnam War in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.”
“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all and brought you many of the movies you have come to love so much,” said his family. “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 father and had no children, Fioravante said.
Born and raised in South Carolina, where he played minor league baseball and AAU basketball, Boseman graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C. He wrote plays, acted and directed on stage, and had small television roles before get your big role.
His surprising portrayal of the color-busting baseball star Robinson alongside Harrison Ford in the 2013 movie “42” caught Hollywood attention and made him a star. A year later, he wowed audiences as Brown in the biopic “Get On Up.”
Boseman died one day when Major League Baseball was celebrating Jackie Robinson’s Day. “His momentous performance in ’42’ will stand the test of time and serve as a powerful vehicle for telling Jackie’s story to audiences for generations to come,” the league wrote in a tweet.
Expressions of shock and despair came Friday night from fellow actors, athletes, musicians, Hollywood titans, fans and politicians. Viola Davis, who starred opposite Boseman in “Get On Up” and the upcoming Wilson adaptation, said: “Chadwick… there are no words to express my devastation at 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 that Boseman used to study theater at Oxford and produced the next Wilson film.
Disney CEO Bob Iger called Boseman “an extraordinary talent and one of the kindest and most generous souls I have ever met.” “Captain America” actor Chris Evans called Boseman “a true original. He was a deeply engaged and constantly curious artist. He still had a lot of incredible work to create. “
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tweeted that Boseman “inspired generations and showed them that they can be anything they want, even superheroes.” Boseman’s last tweet was a picture of her and US Sen. Kamala Harris, celebrating their selection as Biden’s running mate.
His character T’Challa was first introduced to the Marvel Cinematic Universe in 2016 in “Captain America: Civil War,” and his salute to “Wakanda Forever” became a pop culture milestone after the release of “Black Panther” two years ago.
“I don’t think the world was ready for a ‘Black Panther’ movie before now. Socially and politically, I wasn’t ready for that, ”he told the AP at the time.
The film’s vision of Wakanda’s Afrofuturism and technologically advanced civilization resonated with audiences, some of whom wore African attire at screenings and helped propel “Black Panther” to more than $ 1.3 billion at the global box office. It is the only Marvel Studios film to receive an Oscar nomination for best picture.
Boseman said that he most 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 something of Killmonger in me, and I have learned T’Challa over my studies, ”he told the AP while promoting the film.
“It is the place where you start. All African Americans, unless they have some direct connection, have been cut off from that past. There are things that cannot be traced, ”he continued. “You were a sold product. So as an African American it is very difficult to connect directly with Africa at some points. I have made that part of my search in my life. So those things were already there when I entered the role. “
The character was last seen standing silently dressed in a black suit at Tony Stark’s funeral in “Avengers: Endgame.” A sequel to “Black Panther” had been announced, and it was one of the studio’s most anticipated upcoming films.
Even early in his Hollywood career, Boseman was clear-eyed, and even skeptical, of the industry in which he would become an international star.
“You don’t have exactly the same experience as a black actor as you do as a white actor. You don’t have the same opportunities. That’s obvious and true, “he told the AP while promoting” 42. “” The best way to put it is: How often do you watch a movie about a black hero who has a love story … does he have a spirituality? He has an intellect. It’s strange to say it, but it doesn’t happen that often. “
“Black Panther,” written and directed by Ryan Coogler, helped spark a conversation in Hollywood about the importance of featuring non-white characters and hiring non-white filmmakers for their most prominent films. Actor Simu Liu, who starred in the first Marvel movie to focus on an Asian character, tweeted: “Without Chadwick and what he gave his character, there is no Shang Chi. Period. My career is based on the coattails of a great man. “
In addition to Robinson and Brown, Boseman played future US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in 2017’s “Marshall.” He humanized larger-than-life historical figures with the same poignant, reserved dignity, interrupted by flashes of brilliant wit, which would later lead to T’Challa.
He took on his first job as a producer on 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 famous playwright 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 the middle passage of slavery, his works are those forgotten songs. remixed for the struggles of adaptation to these shores … In the same way that Wilson’s work was influenced by the blues of Bessie Smith, Muddy Waters and WC Handy, my works were infused with Tupac, Biggie and Black Star. “
Boseman first got into theater, acting, and playwriting when he was studying at Howard. She first visited Africa during college with theater director and professor Mike Malone, working in Ghana to preserve and celebrate rituals with performances on a proscenium stage. He told the AP that the trip had been “one of the most important learning experiences of my life.”
Boseman had roles in such television shows as ABC Family’s “Lincoln Heights” and NBC’s “Persons Unknown,” but prior to “42” he had only acted in one movie, the 2008 soccer drama “The Express.”
When 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.
Although deeply private and often reserved in his public appearances and interviews, he made it clear that he understood the importance of his work and its impact on the culture at large.
At the 2019 Screen Actors Guild Awards, “Black Panther” won the best cast award, electrifying the room. Before an auditorium full of actors, Chadwick Boseman stepped up to the microphone. He quoted Nina Simone: “Being young, talented and black,” and put the moment in context.
“We know what it is to be told that there is no screen to appear on, a stage to appear on. … We know what it is to be below and not above. And that’s what we were going to work with every day, ”Boseman said. “We knew that we could create a world that exemplified the world we wanted to see. We knew we had something to give ”.
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