Chadwick Boseman's Biography

Boseman, born Chadwick Aaron Boseman in South Carolina, in 1976, got his start writing plays at an early age, staging a production called Crossroads in his junior year of high school. He earned a place at Howard University in Washington, DC, where studied directing. From there, he attended the British American Drama Academy in Oxford.

Though his aspirations leaned more towards writing and directing, he began to learn acting so he could relate to castmembers, returning the States to graduate from New York's Digital Film Academy and becoming the drama instructor in the Schomburg Junior Scholars Program, housed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

Moving to Los Angeles to pursue an acting career, he began winning guest roles in shows such as _ER_, Third Watch and CSI: NY. While building his performing CV, he continued to write plays, which were regularly staged. Recurring roles and regular assignments on TV followed, and he also made his film debut in 2008's The Express. From there, he appeared military veteran drama The Kill Hole before his big break in 2013's _42_, where he played baseball legend Jackie Robinson. Boseman's career began to take off further, with another lead roles in Get On Up before Marvel came calling and he won the part of T'Challa, AKA Black Panther, for Captain America: Civil War. Signing the usual multi-film deal, he'd go onto appear in fellow MCU blockbusters Black Panther, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Between his work on the superhero outings, Boseman continued with dramatic fare such as 2017's Marshall and last year's 21 Bridges. He was last seen in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods. He was diagnosed with Stage III colon cancer in 2016, finding the strength to work on films both big and small while also going through chemotherapy treatments as his illness progressed.

A charismatic, stalwart performer, Boseman brought a quiet sense of authority to every role, using his burgeoning career to help good causes and raise awareness. His legacy will live on with the MCU animated series What If...?, in which he voiced T'Challa, and the film adaption of August wilson's play Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

Chadwick died on Friday 28th Aug, 2020 at the age of 43 years old.