This doesn’t seem real. Chadwick Boseman is dead from colon cancer at the age of 43. He has been fighting the disease for four years, and in that time he made his enormous mark on the industry and on our culture. I first clocked him – as many of us did – when he played Jackie Robinson in the wonderful 42 (a film I highly recommend: it’s how a biopic should be done). I remember thinking, “Wow. This kid is GOOD.” It’s a difficult role: it denies the actor easy catharsis. There’s no moment where he can let loose – at least not in the way you expect. He navigated all of this beautifully AND he was believable as a baseball player. 42 was not his debut. He had been around for a while, appearing in television series as well as smaller parts in films. This was his moment of stepping into the spotlight. He wasn’t just an actor of great promise. It was like he emerged fully formed. He was already a star. He had “it.”
His FACE, his gentle eyes, his blazing smile (a rare smile, but when it comes it’s blinding), his openness to his own emotions … which draws you into him and his experience … he took your breath away. It was high-wattage movie-star stuff, which you really needed in 42, since Jackie Robinson has such enormous symbolic significance to so many people. I was excited to see what he would do next.
He went on to play more major figures in Black culture – Thurgood Marshall, James Brown – before, of course, catapulting into superstardom with the groundbreaking Black Panther.
I am mournful to think of what might have been and I am in awe of the courage he showed in battling cancer while he was doing all this, knowing his time was limited. I mean, everyone has limited time on this planet, but it’s easy to ignore it when you’re healthy. He knew. It gives his career such poignancy and I am just so damn sad right now.
My good friend Odie wrote the tribute to Boseman over on Rogerebert.com and it made me cry.
Rest in peace. Thank you for giving your all while you were here.
Fans have mostly brought up 42 and Black Panther as his most memorable performances. But the scene that’s been replaying in my mind over and over since I heard he died is his final scene in Da5Bloods, when he hugged his traumatized friend who shot him and said ‘Ain’t no thing blood.’ Odie wrote so beautifully about that scene in his tribute.
Yes, amazing moment. I’m so glad he worked with SL. Odie caught it all. He always does!