Chadwick Aaron Boseman was born in Anderson, South Carolina on November 29th, 1976. His mother, Carolyn, was a nurse and his father, Leroy, was a textile factory worker and managed an upholstery business. Boseman developed an interest in acting while attending T.L. Hanna High School and wrote his first play his junior year. The play was titled Crossroads, and Boseman staged it at school as a result of a classmate tragically being shot and killed. He later attended Howard University in Washington D.C. where he graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Directing. Directing was his main career ambition, though he also studied acting to relate to actors, attending the Oxford Mid-Summer Program of the British American Drama Academy in England. He worked as a drama instructor at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York, and also wrote some other plays that he took on tour, one of which was called Rhyme Deferred which he wrote with Howard classmate, Kamilah Forbes. They took the show on tour throughout the United States, and afterward Boseman relocated to Los Angeles.
He landed his very first acting role on the ABC Soap Opera All My Children (1970-2011), but during 2008 he also wrote and directed a short film called Blood Over a Broken Pawn (2008), and starred in his very first movie The Express: The Ernie Davis Story. (He played American football halfback, Floyd Little, starring opposite Dennis Quaid and Rob Brown). After making this film, he appeared in episodes of Castle (2009-2016) and Justified (2010-2015). In 2012, he starred in The Kill Hole opposite Billy Zane and and Peter Greene and directed another short film Heaven (2012). This short film was a special project for Boseman having been raised a Baptist and grown up a member of his church’s choir and youth group.
After wrapping each of these projects, Chadwick Boseman landed the role of a lifetime when he was cast as Jackie Robinson in 42 (2013), co-starring Harrison Ford and Alan Tudyk. Boseman performed the majority of his own stunts in the film while some were performed by Jasha Balcom, who in real life was a former minor league player. Boseman and Tudyk didn’t purposefully didn’t socialize with one other off screen so that the rivalry between their characters, Jackie Robinson and Ben Chapman, would look more believable on screen. The film was well-received, as were each of the actors. The Hollywood Reporter even said that he “has the necessary appeal, proves convincing as an athlete and is expressive in spite of the fact that the man he's playing must mostly keep his true feelings bottled up.”
In 2014, Boseman made the film Get on Up, where he impersonated the “Godfather of Soul,” James Brown. Not long after wrapping this film, Boseman heard that Marvel was looking for an actor to portray T’Challa, otherwise known as the Black Panther, in Captain America: Civil War (2016). “Civil War” would be the Black Panther’s first appearance in the long line of Marvel films distributed by Walt Disney Pictures. Although Boseman didn’t read comic books growing up, he immediately began researching the character and learned everything he could about him. He ultimately he met with Marvel and shared his vision of the character with them instead of actually auditioning for it. Fortunately, his vision was identical to their vision and he was cast. This led to him signing a five-picture deal with Marvel.
The same year as “Civil War,” Boseman starred in Message From the King (2016), a film that he also executive produced. He made his debut as a head producer the following year in Marshall (2017) starring as Associate Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and co-producing with Lauren Friedman, Reginuld Hudlin, Jonathan Sanger, and Paula Wagner. In 2018, he reprised his signature role in Black Panther (2018) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). The Black Panther catchphrase “Wakanda Forever,” became a trademark from the first film that continues to today, being said a total of four times throughout the movie. He reprised the “Panther,” a third time in Avengers: Endgame (2019) and made 21 Bridges (2019) that year as well which he co-produced with Anthony and Joe Russo. The Russo brothers also directed Boseman in “Civil War,” “Infinity War,” and “Endgame.” He completed Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods (2020) and George C. Wolfe’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (2020) before his unfortunate death.
Chadwick Boseman’s legacy in movies is incredibly remarkable. Although he will forever be remembered for portraying the Black Panther and saying “Wakanda Forever,” in just a short time (shorter than it should have been) he managed to live his dream of working in nearly every aspect of the entertainment industry. Not many others possess those kinds of capabilities. It’s also unfortunate that his plays never saw the lights of Broadway, but movie watchers will continue to benefit from his talents for “forever.”
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