On November
29, 1976, Chadwick Aaron Boseman, an American actor, was born. In his
two-decade career, Boseman received numerous awards and nominations, including
two Screen Actors Guild Awards, a Golden Globe, a Critics' Choice Movie Award,
a Primetime Emmy Award, and an Oscar. Chadwick Aaron Boseman was reared in
Anderson, South Carolina, and is the son of Carolyn and Leroy Boseman. His
mother was a nurse and his father ran an upholstery business in addition to
working in the textile sector. Boseman practiced martial arts both as a child
and an adult. He had always envisioned himself as an architect.
Boseman graduated from T.
L. Hanna High School in 1995 where he played basketball and earned his
graduation. In his junior year, a classmate was shot and killed, inspiring him
to write and perform Crossroads, his debut play. He competed in the National
Speech and Debate Association speech and debate tournaments at T. L. Hanna. He
came in ninth place in Original Oratory at the 1995 National Competition. He
was courted to play basketball in college, but he chose to attend Howard
University in Washington, D.C., where he graduated with a Master of Fine Arts
in directing in 2000 instead. When he was a student, he worked at a nearby
African-American-focused bookstore, which, according to his friend Vanessa
German, was significant and inspirational to him. For his play Hieroglyphic
Graffiti, he drew inspiration from this encounter.
He had Phylicia Rashad and
Al Freeman Jr. as lecturers at Howard; the latter later became a mentor to him.
Boseman and other students were accepted for the Balliol College, Oxford,
England, British American Drama Academy's Oxford Summer Program. Rashad helped
with fundraising, especially with the help of her friend and renowned actor
Denzel Washington. Because he wanted to write and direct, Boseman initially
began studying acting to learn how to engage with actors. He developed an
admiration for William Shakespeare's playwriting while enrolled in the program
in 1998, and he also studied the works of other dramatists, including Samuel
Beckett and Harold Pinter. He traveled to Africa for the first time while in
college, working in Ghana with his professor Mike Malone to "keep and
commemorate traditions with performances on a proscenium stage." He later
referred to this as "one of the most essential learning experiences of
[his] life." After returning to the country, he took additional film
studies courses, and the Digital Film Academy in New York City awarded him a
diploma.
After earning a degree in
directing from Howard University, Boseman started working in theater. His 2005
production Deep Azure was nominated for a Jeff Award, and he also received an
acting AUDELCO from the Drama League and a directing fellowship from the
organization. His series regular performance on the NBC drama Persons Unknown
in 2010 led to his first important film role, and in the 2013 historical
picture 42, where he played baseball legend, Jackie Robinson, he won praise
from critics. In the 2014 movie Get on Up, he played James Brown, and in the
2017 movie Marshall, he played a young Thurgood Marshall. He continued to
impersonate historical people.
From 2016 through 2019,
Boseman won acclaim for his portrayal of the Marvel Comics character Black
Panther in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He appeared in four Marvel Cinematic
Universe films, including the 2018 film of the same name, for which he won the
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture and the Screen
Actors Guild Award for Best Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. For
becoming the first black actor to play the main character in a Marvel Cinematic
Universe film, he was also listed in the 2018 Time 100. In the Disney+
anthology series What If...?, Boseman played the lead. his final showing. posthumously
won the Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance Primetime Emmy Award in
2021.
In 2016, Boseman received a
colon cancer diagnosis. He concealed his illness and continued to work till his
passing in 2020. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which was released posthumously that
same year and received positive reviews, earned him nominations for both the
Academy Award and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama. For
his parts in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and Da 5 Bloods, Boseman received the
most nominations for a performer at a single Screen Actors Guild Awards
ceremony, with the latter garnering him Male Actor in a Leading Role.
Boseman
began dating Taylor Simone Ledward in 2015. The couple reportedly married in
secret after becoming engaged in October 2019. In a letter announcing Boseman's
passing, his family disclosed this information.
Boseman has raised a Christian and received baptism. His old pastor reported that he kept
up his faith and was active in the church choir and youth group. He had studied
Hebrew and was well-informed in both the Old and New Testaments. Boseman
asserted that he prayed to be the Black Panther before being selected to play
the part in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Boseman
succumbed to symptoms of colon cancer on August 28, 2020, in his Los Angeles
home, surrounded by his wife and family. He was 43 years old. Ledward will
represent his estate in accordance with California law because he passed away
without leaving a will. A memorial service was held in Anderson, South
Carolina, on September 4, 2020. Speakers at the service included Boseman's
youth pastor and Deanna Brown-Thomas, who played James Brown in the film Get on
Up. The city unveiled its plans to erect an enduring work of art in memory at
the funeral. Boseman was buried in the nearby Welfare Baptist Church cemetery
in Belton, South Carolina.
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