Chadwick Boseman 1976-2020

Chadwick Boseman died late in August after a career highlighted by playing Jackie Robinson in 2013’s 42, and T'Challa, the King of Wacanda, in 2018’s Black Panther. He also was James Brown in Get on Up (2014), and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017). He attended Howard University where he graduated with a bachelor of fine arts in directing. He subsequently attended the British American Drama Academy in Oxford, England. (A little-known fact:  Denzel Washington paid for his tuition at Oxford University.) He moved to Los Angeles in 2008 to pursue his craft on the big screen. What his many fans did not know, was that during the last four years of his life he was battling colon cancer. During that critical time, he had starred in several of the biggest movies ever made. He was married to Taylor Simone Ledward. As a playwright, his script for Deep Azure, was performed at the Congo Square Theatre Company in Chicago, Illinois, was nominated for a 2006 Joseph Jefferson Award for New Work. Quote on his role as Jackie Robinson, the first black man to play for a Major League Baseball Team:

The story is relevant because we still stand on his shoulders.

He started something - I would even say maybe he didn't even start it, it started before him.

But he carried the torch. And he carried it alone for a period of time before other people could help him.