Remembering Actor Chadwick Boseman

It is for certain that when we remember Chadwick Boseman, we will agree that the actor left this planet far too early.

Boseman died on Friday after a long, secret battle with colon cancer. He was only 43 years old. 

He will be remembered as an actor who portrayed iconic figures on the silver screen. Better yet, he will br remembered as an actor who was an iconic figure himself.

He was a native son of South Carolina who received a degree in directing from Howard, an elite university located in Washington, D. C. He also studied acting at an academy in London.

Boseman Gave Inspiring Address at Howard Commencement in 2018

Boseman was called back to give the commencement address at Howard in 2018 and he presented graduates with a stirring, inspirational speech.

His talk challenged his audience to get involved and to strive to make a difference.

“Purpose is critical,” he said. “You should find purpose more than a job or a career.

“Next jobs, next steps, next careers, more education, are all important,” he said at the time. 

“But purpose is an element that we find crosses disciplines. Purpose is part of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history.”

Chadwick Boseman started out as a playwright, but later, in 2000, picked up television roles as an actor in shows like Law and Order and CSI: N.Y. 

He rose to fame as a film star when he portrayed baseball great Jackie Robinson in the 2013 movie 42. Boseman also was Thurgood Marshall and James Brown in other noted movies. 

Boseman became a household name, however, with 2018’s Black Panther, a box office hit! The movie was historic because it was the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie with a black actor in the lead. 

Amazingly, Boseman Was Able to Accomplish a Lot in His Brief Time Here

It’s really amazing just how much Boseman was able to accomplish in his brief time on Earth. He had to battle an industry’s historical prejudice while, at the same time, undergoing cancer treatments. 

“But it’s just as amazing,” one individual close to the actor said, “to consider what lay in front of him.”

Black Panther film director Ryan Coogler was quoted as saying that Boseman had definitely brought changes to the movies in less than 10 years. 

“I will always be curious to know what the next decade would have brought had Boseman lived,” the director said. 

Black Panther, the film, had a mostly black cast with only Martin Freeman and Andy Serkis as white actors. Coogler, directing a script he penned along with Joe Robert Cole, offered no apology about the movie’s blackness. 

The film features African cultures and Africans. It is a story of black power and black pride and includes numerous superhero themes.

This movie is why Chadwick Boseman will never be forgotten.

Even though Black Panther had all the bells and whistles of any other Marvel Cinematic Universe movie, it was indeed more than a mixture of computer-generated imagery.

Even before Black Panther surfaced in theaters, it had gained cultural phenomenon status and was drawing people who normally would not leave their homes to watch any film. The movie takes on complex issues such as slavery, racism and identity. 

At the same time, the film is entertaining and fun to watch.

Boseman Plays T’Challa the Black Panther in His Signature Film

The story is about T’Challa after his return home in the wake of his father’s death and the Civil War.

He is crowned king of Wakanda, a fictional African nation that appears as a normal sub-Saharan nation, but is actually the most advanced country on the planet. 

T’Challa’s super-advanced uniform is made with something called vibranium technology and the Black Panther is vulnerable, awkward and full of self-doubt, characteristics of a young king on whose shoulders rests tremendous responsibilities. 

Flashing his boyish image, the character Boseman portrays has a soft charm about him that every one has to love. Boseman, of course, was making the movie while fighting cancer. It makes his efforts as an actor all the more heroic.

How will Chadwick Boseman be remembered? There was so much that made up this remarkable person it is overwhelming.

I know he will be remembered as a superhero, a superhero on the silver screen, and a superhero in everyday life.