'Black Panther' Star Chadwick Boseman Dies After Secret Battle With Colon Cancer
Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman has died after a battle with colon cancer, the Associated Press has confirmed.
“It is with immeasurable grief that we confirm the passing of Chadwick Boseman,” reads a statement on Boseman's official Twitter. "Chadwick was diagnosed with stage III colon cancer in 2016, and battled with it these last four years as it progressed to stage IV."
“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” the statement from his family reads. “From Marshall to Da 5 Bloods, August Wilson’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and several more- all were filmed during and between countless surgeries and chemotherapy. It was the honor of his career to bring King T’Challa to life in Black Panther.”
After appearing as Jackie Robinson in 42 and James Brown in Get On Up, Boseman hit superstar status by appearing as Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. Boseman continued to play the character in his own stand-alone film, Black Panther, which became the first superhero film to receive a Best Picture nomination. The film remains the No. 12 highest grossing movie of all time.
“Studios will very often tell you that movies with a black lead are not going to work overseas,” Boseman told Esquire in a 2018 cover story. “So I think that was the thing for me—this means something everywhere in the world. I know at that point it could actually change how studios respond to our movies. You can no longer say definitively, ‘Black movies don’t work [outside of the U. S.].’”
Boseman then appeared in the global box office titans Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Most recently, Boseman appeared in Spike Lee's Da 5 Bloods. The actor, who died at age 43, had not made his diagnosis public.
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