Chadwick Boseman
Actor
THE AMERICAN film actor Chadwick Boseman, who has died at 43 after a diagnosis of colon cancer, was the star of the 2018 comic book blockbuster Black Panther, one of the highest- grossing films of all time and the first of its genre to be nominated for a best picture Oscar.
He had made his debut as the Black Panther character two years earlier in Captain America: Civil War and reprised the role in two further Marvel comic adventures, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Their showcasing of a black leading hero – supposedly the ruler of a fictional African
nation with the most advanced technology on earth – caught the mood of the time, especially with the Oscars under fire for being “too white”. Black Panther in particular was seen as a cultural milestone for its largely black cast and its black director, Ryan Coogler.
Boseman was born in South Carolina, the son of an agricultural worker and a nurse.
He discovered a love of acting at school, where he wrote Crossroads, a play based on the shooting of a classmate. He
went on to study directing at the historically black Howard University, in Washington DC.
From there he won a place on a summer theatre course at Balliol College, Oxford, for which his costs were covered by celebrity friends of his lecturer, the actress Phylicia Rashad. Denzel Washington was amongst them.
After returning to the US he graduated from New York City’s Digital Film Academy and between teaching acting in Harlem, found work in TV
soap operas and in episodes of Law and Order, CSI: NY, and ER.
He came to prominence in 2013, playing the real- life baseball great Jackie Robinson in the film 42, and the following year as the soul singer James Brown, in Get On Up.
His work after Black Panther included last year’s thriller
21 Bridges, and he was in talks about a Black Panther sequel.
He is survived by his wife, Taylor Simone Ledward.