Chadwick Boseman

Chadwick Aaron Boseman (November 29, 1976 – August 28, 2020) was an American actor and playwright. Through his two-decade career, he appeared in a number of projects spanning both blockbuster and independent films, and received various accolades, including an Actor Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award.

Born in South Carolina, Boseman studied directing at Howard University and began his career in theatre. Boseman won a Drama League Directing Fellowship and an acting AUDELCO, along with receiving a Jeff Award nomination for his 2005 play Deep Azure. Transitioning to the screen, his first major role was as a series regular on the NBC drama Persons Unknown (2010) and he landed his breakthrough role as baseball player Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013). He continued to portray historical figures, starring as singer James Brown in Get on Up (2014) and as Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017).

Boseman achieved international fame for playing the Marvel Comics superhero T'Challa (Black Panther) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) from 2016 to 2019. He appeared in four MCU films, including Black Panther (2018). As the first Black actor to headline an MCU film, he was also named in the 2018 Time 100. Boseman's final performance as the character in the Disney+ anthology series What If...? (2021) earned him a posthumous Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Character Voice-Over Performance.

In 2016, Boseman was diagnosed with colon cancer. He kept his condition private, continuing to act until his death from the illness in 2020. For his final film role, the drama Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), he received the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for Best Actor, along with a posthumous nomination for an Oscar in the same category.