CHADWICK BOSEMAN

(29 November 1976 - 28 August 2020)

The American actor Chadwick Boseman, who has died from colon cancer aged 43, starred in Marvel Studios’ Black Panther and was impressive as several black American heroes. Born in South Carolina, he studied Fine Arts and visited London for a summer drama school. Back in New York he graduated from the Digital Film Academy, did some teaching and then sought work as an actor in Los Angeles. On television from 2003 in such series as Law & Order, CSI: NY, ER and Lincoln Heights etc, he also began to appear in films, the first a small part in The Express (2008) about the college football star Ernie Davis. In his next, The Kill Hole, Boseman played a troubled Iraqi war veteran, while in Brian Helgeland's 42 he was Jackie Robinson, the first African-American to play major league baseball. He then appeared in Draft Day, a football league drama, which was followed by Get On Up, a music biopic with Boseman as the iconic 'Godfather of Soul', James Brown. Then he was in the historical fantasy Gods of Egypt as Thoth, the God of Wisdom, and Message From the King, playing a South African looking for his sister in L.A. Boseman then made the first of his four appearances as Prince T’Challa (aka Black Panther) in Captain America: Civil War. Before his second appearance as T’Challa in Black Panther, he was in Marshall, playing Thurgood Marshall, the first black man to become a US Supreme Court Justice. Boseman completed his T’Challa quartet with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. In 21 Bridges he was a New York detective chasing police killers, while Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods saw him (in flashback) as a squad leader in Vietnam. Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on August Wilson’s play, is awaiting release. The question remaining is will Black Panther II go ahead without its charismatic titular star? Chadwick Boseman married the singer Taylor Simone Ledward a few months before his death.

MICHAEL DARVELL