Boseman not only played icons, he was one
The image that keeps replaying in my head since the death of Chadwick Boseman is from early 2018. It was just days before “Black Panther” would open in theaters and the exhilaration aroused by this long-in-coming cultural event was everywhere around Boseman. Flocked by fans, he repeatedly paused for pictures until he was handed a months-old Black child whom he gently held, beaming.
Boseman’s family said that the actor, who died Friday at the age of 43, was first diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016. Did he know when he held that baby that he might not live long enough to see a child of his own raised? Did he know that in playing Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Thurgood Marshall and T’Challa that he was helping to cradle another generation?
In a tragically brief life, Boseman played men of public life and private pain. Before Friday, we didn’t know he, too, was bearing such a burden. That has only magnified his accomplishment, bringing him closer to the great figures whose shoes he wore on film. He played icons, and died one, too.
“There’s a lot to learn from Jackie Robinson. There’s a lot to learn from James Brown. There’s a lot to learn from Thurgood Marshall,” Boseman said that day 21⁄ years ago. “I would like to say
that some of those qualities have infused themselves into me at this point.”
Boseman started out as a playwright. He was raised in the manufacturing town of Anderson, South Carolina, the youngest of three boys. Before he was a Hollywood star, he penned numerous hip-hop-infused plays: “Hieroglyphic Graffiti,” “Rhyme Deferred,” “Deep Azure” – and directed others. In New York, he performed with the National Shakespeare Company.
He compared his alma mater, Howard University, to his own Wakanda.
“If you have a blanketed idea of what it means to be of African descent and you go to Howard University, you’re meeting people from all over the diaspora – from the Caribbean, any country in Africa, in Europe,” Boseman said. “So you’re seeing people from all walks of life that look like you but they sound different.”
It wasn’t until he was in his mid-30s, after a handful of brief television appearances, that he landed his first leading role as Robinson in “42.”
Many would have, after playing Robinson and Brown, turned a blind eye to biopics. But by playing a young version of the Supreme Court justice in “Marshall” (which he co-produced) Boseman confirmed the ongoing nature of his project, one that would reach a staggering climax in “Black Panther.” Boseman first made his debut as King T’Challa in “Captain America: Civil War” in 2016, the same year he was diagnosed with colon cancer.
After playing a string of pioneers, Boseman led the “Black Panther” revolution.
During the filming of “Black Panther,” Boseman said he was communicating with two boys who had terminal cancer. They were hoping to make it long enough to see the film.
“I realized they anticipated something great,” Boseman said in a Sirius XM interview.
The kids, Boseman said through tears, didn’t make it. But in his short career, Boseman held in his hands a world, illuminated on screen like never before.