On August 28, the death of Chadwick Boseman due to a colon cancer impacted the whole world. The actor was 43 years old and left not only as a hero in Marvel’s Universe, but as a strong person with a huge heart inside and out the screen and an amazing trajectory to be known and remembered.
- His Life
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Chadwick Aaron Boseman was born and raised in Anderson, South Carolina, and since he was really young he already had interest in writing and directing. He wrote his first play, Crossroads, while he was still in high school, and soon, he graduated in Fine Arts and Directing, attending the Howard University. He performed and directed many stage productions before being in the spotlight for acting.
He was never used to showing his personal life on social media. Chadwick got married quietly in October 2019, with the singer Taylor Simone Ledward, and kept a low profile on social media about their relationship. That choice not to expose his life too much online was kept when he discovered he had a stage III colon cancer, in 2016. After four years of fighting against it, the only people who truly knew about his health condition were still only a small part of his family.
- His Career
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The professional conquered the public way before becoming a Marvel hero, starting his career as an actor with participations in series like Law & Order and CSI. As the main character of productions such as Marshall, 21 Bridges and Spike Lee’s Da 5 Blood, Boseman ended up focusing on his acting performances more than directing, but still managed to be successful in both roles.
Lots of the characters he interpreted were actually people from real life, like the athlete Jackie Robinson on movie 42 and James Brown in Get on Up. The opportunity to act as the first Marvel’s black superhero in Black Panther came in 2018, with the release of the debut movie of the hero in MCU. It boosted his career in a worldwide scale: “Everybody is the hero on their own story”, he once said about the movie plot in a interview, and the connection between all the cast and all the sides of characters in Black Panther’s story is one of the elements that made it such an important movie for this movie industry.
- His Legacy
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Boseman left a mark in the entertainment universe, building, from his first TV series episodes to Black Panther, a message of representativity, showing the impact that black people playing main characters can have – not only when the subject is racism. King T’Challa inspired kids, teenagers and adults all around the world, and encouraged many of them to discover their power through the story of the unbeatable Black Panther.
Fighting his own battle in silence, he still dedicated as many opportunities as possible to help others, giving inspirational speeches and becoming a symbol of someone who “was fueled by love, not fear”, as the actress Lupita Nyong’o wrote in her tribute for him: “By pushing through and working with such high purpose in the films he chose to commit to, Chadwick has made the infinite his home”.
His memory will be eternal among all fans, not only as an amazing actor, but as the lovely human being the actor was in real life. Wakanda will live forever, and so will the legacy of Chadwick Boseman.
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The article above was edited by Giulia Gianolla
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