Shocking and tragic news came late yesterday as it was announced that Chadwick Boseman had passed away at the age of 43 after a four year battle with colon cancer. He rose to prominence after playing Jackie Robinson in the 2013 biopic 42, and then achieved worldwide fame after Black Panther came out in 2018 and became such a smash success. He made four appearances in the Marvel Universe as King T’Challa (Captain America: Civil War, Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame) and had been set for a sequel. Aside from Jackie Robinson, he’d played two other historical African-American icons James Brown and Thurgood Marshall in the biopics Get On Up (2014) and Marshall (2017). His most recent appearance was in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods, which came out in June. Most stunningly, every movie he made between 2016 and 2020 was done in between bouts of surgery and chemotherapy as he was fighting for his life- essentially the entire time he was involved in the Marvel Universe. Some news is simply too stunning to process. His final film will be Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, based on the August Wilson play and co-starring Viola Davis
Chadwick Boseman accepts the SAG ensemble award for Black Panther:
In honor of his death on Jackie Robinson day, here’s the trailer for 42:
