The world wasn't ready for the shock of hearing that Black Panther star, Chadwick Boseman, had died. He was only 43. Now, exactly two years after his death, we continue to celebrate without him being here.
Boseman got a chance to not only play iconic characters in movies, he also was able to work with some of the greatest actors alive. From Denzel Washington, to Forest Whitaker and more--you name it, Boseman has worked with them in one way or another.
Celebrated actress Phylicia Rashad referred to Boseman as "gentle" in an interview with ET in October.
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"I remember his smile and his gentle way," she said. "I remember his unending curiosity and his love of study, studying many things all of the time. When I look back on his body of film work, and I have been able to see quite a bit of it in these last few weeks, it never ceases to amaze me how very different he is in each and every role. And the differences are subtle. They are not sweet rolled, they are not manipulated, they are not contrived. He presents a real person and persona in every character he plays."
She later recalled how happy he was about helping others.
"When he came to New York, after graduating from Howard University, one day he called me all excited, 'Oh, Ms. Rashad, you will never guess what I am doing,'" she recalled, noting that she initially thought he'd landed a big Broadway gig. "You know what he was doing? He was working with young people at the library and he was excited about it. That's who Chadwick was."
Before he was cast as the Marvel Studios superhero, Boseman’s career first exploded with his portrayals of Black American icons Jackie Robinson in 2013 in “42” and James Brown in 2014 in “Get on Up.” Boseman also appeared in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods” in 2020, and played Thurgood Marshall in 2017 in “Marshall.”
The statement about his death said that “Chadwick was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, and battled with it these last 4 years as it progressed to stage IV.”
“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much. From Marshall to Da 5 Bloods, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and several more, all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy.”
“It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther.”
"He was a beautiful man and a great artist," Viola Davis says recalled about Boseman. She stars with him in his final role of 'Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.' "It's like what Issa Rae said: 'He was ours as African-Americans.' He was someone who had a quality that very few have today, whether young or old, which is a total commitment to the art form of acting. Regardless of ego, regardless of any of it. He was with the same agent he had when he started his career."
Davis remembered how Boseman "absolutely did not want celebrity treatment" on the set. "He hated that," she added. "He really did. We actually had a little discussion about that. He said, 'Viola, I don't mind the work. I don't mind all the hours. It's the other stuff that exhausts me.' He hated the celebrity part. I have to say, we all do. Because we have to be a persona that we just don't know."
