NEED TO KNOW
- Chadwick Boseman will be granted a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
- Boseman died at 43 in 2020 of colon cancer
- He starred in Black Panther and received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Chadwick Boseman will be honored with a posthumous star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Boseman, who died at 43 in 2020 of colon cancer, will be honored on Nov. 20. Ryan Coogler, who directed Boseman in Black Panther, and Viola Davis, who costarred with Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, will speak at the ceremony, Billboard reported. Boseman’s wife, Simone Ledward-Boseman, is set to accept the honor.
Boseman’s star will be located at 6904 Hollywood Blvd. in Los Angeles, according to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
“The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is deeply honored to celebrate Chadwick Boseman’s extraordinary legacy with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame,” Ana Martinez, Hollywood Walk of Fame producer, said in a statement, per Billboard. “His powerful performances and enduring impact both on and off screen continue to inspire generations around the world.”
The actor, who built a career on playing notable figures in Black American history, previously received a posthumous Academy Award nomination in 2021 for his role as troubled trumpet player Levee Green in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The film is an adaptation of the 1982 August Wilson play of the same name, and provides a fictionalized account of a dramatic Ma Rainey recording session in 1920s Chicago.
His performance won him Golden Globe, Critics Choice and Screen Actors Guild Awards, which Ledward-Boseman accepted on his behalf.
Davis, 60, said in December 2020 that she “broke down” when she learned of Boseman’s death.
“Lord knows we all would’ve wanted him to live another 50 years. We all want longevity,” she told Yahoo!. “But I can’t see his life tragically at all. … Because I felt like he was always living in the moment, squeezing out every bit of life. What it makes me think is, it’s not the quantity, it’s the quality.”
She added of her former costar, “What I hold onto with Chad is that he lived his life his way. I would say his professional life as absolutely paralleled his personal life, that’s my guess, in terms of how he lived with the utmost integrity.”
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Boseman’s career breakthrough came in 2013, when he stepped up to the plate as Jackie Robinson, the first Black player in modern Major League Baseball history, in 42.
The actor earned acclaim for his performances as James Brown in Get On Up in 2014 and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall in 2017. Marshall was the first Black person to become a U.S. Supreme Court Justice. The film follows Marshall early in his career as he defends Joseph Spell (Sterling K. Brown), a Black man who is accused of a crime he didn’t commit.
Boseman’s dedication ceremony will be livestreamed on WalkOfFame.com.
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