More than a month after his passing, Chadwick Boseman’s name is still being honoured – as it should. Recently, Disney unveiled a beautiful tribute memorial to the ‘Black Panther’ star while his hometown of South Carolina lowered their Statehouse flags to half-staff following his passing. Now, those closest to him – the two who’d known Chadwick Boseman since he was a baby all the way through to adulthood – are sharing what it meant to know ‘Chad’ the man, not ‘Chadwick’ the superstar actor. His brothers, Kevin (48) and Derrick Boseman (54) sat down with the New York Times to share their experience with ‘Chad’.
To the world, ‘Chadwick’ was an award-winning actor and producer who gave movies like ’42’, ‘Get Up On It’ and ‘Marshall’ a face, personality and soul. But to his brothers, was the ‘Chad’ that would regularly go to church as well as was gifted in drawing.
“You have to start sharing that person with the world; I always endeavoured to just treat him like my brother. I have been trying to remember Chad and not Chadwick. And there’s just been a lot of Chadwick in the air.”
As for his eldest brother, Derrick Boseman, ‘Chad’ was “probably the most gifted person” he’d ever met. However, the young man who proved that “you can come from [Anderson, South Carolina] and become anything” was at his end. The eldest Boseman brother then shared that he day before he passed, the actor 43-year-old actor said to Derrick …
“Man, I’m in the fourth quarter, and I need you to get me out of the game'”
Derrick Boseman shared that despite not initially understanding what Chadwick had meant, it didn’t take him long to realise that his brother – who had been strong for so long – was tired and ready to go.
After a private battle with colon cancer for four years, Chadwick Boseman passed from complications as a result of treatment for colon cancer, with his friends and family by his side. His final film, ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ is scheduled to be released posthumously.