Welcome to another round of gratitude for this week’s Grateful Heart Monday, which for today is for Chadwick Boseman, an actor who I came to admire his talent and perseverance no matter what circumstances he faced in life.
As most know by now, Chadwick Boseman passed away in 2020 due to a very painful 4-year-long battle with colon cancer. But, throughout his painful circumstances, most would have never known the struggles he was facing, as he continued to act and star in a number of impressive films including Marshall, Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, 21 Bridges, Da 5 Bloods, and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. What I came to appreciate the most about Boseman in watching all those movies was that he never gave up, or in, to his illness and throughout it all, he showed the world how incredible an actor he was.
While Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was not necessarily my cup of tea for the type of movie I like to watch, his performance within it was electrifying and incredibly believable, so much so, that it earned him many acting awards for the role. I was so excited that one of them was an Academy Award nomination for playing the character Levee in the movie and had really hoped he’d take home the trophy on Oscar night posthumously. Sadly, he didn’t, but he most assuredly left his impressive mark upon Hollywood in his too-young-to-die 43-year-old life.
The first time I saw how dynamic of an actor Boseman was came in the film “42” where he played the role of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. It was such a memorable one for me that I, even 8 years later, remember vividly the story of Robinson and even bought the film for home viewing because of how well Boseman played him.
I always tell people the mark of a great actor or actress is when you no longer see the person playing the role they are playing and instead you feel like you are actually watching the person they are embodying in the film. Said in another way, it’s when a gifted actor or actress is able to lose themselves completely in the role they are playing. There are a number of great actors and actresses throughout movie history that come to mind who have done this quite well and have often been nominated for many acting awards because of it. Two modern day individuals who come to mind the quickest for me are Meryl Streep and Daniel Day-Lewis. Both built their resume up from one film to the next, getting better and better with each performance and I believe that Boseman would have eventually joined their ranks and been amongst the greats in acting history if he had remained alive.
That’s why I’m so sad that Boseman passed away tragically from a disease he wrestled with painfully for far too long. I am grateful though that even through it all he showed the world and especially me, just how amazing he was, both as an actor and as a human being with an incredible ability to persevere no matter what his circumstances were in life. You will be missed Chadwick and I dedicate today’s Grateful Heart Monday to your life and how much it touched mine.
Peace, love, light, and joy,
Andrew Arthur Dawson
