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.”