‘Black Panther’ Star Chadwick Boseman Dead at 42

Chadwick Boseman has died at the age of 42, following a years-long battle wit cancer.

The tragic news was confirmed Friday in a statement shared on the actor’s Twitter account. The post stated Boseman was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016—which he never publicly disclosed—and continued to fight it as it progressed to stage 4. 

“A true fighter, Chadwick persevered through it all, and brought you many of the films you have come to love so much,” the statement red. “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.”

The South Carolina native graduated from Howard University in 2000 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in directing. He would go on to graduate from New York City’s Digital Film Academy, where he participated in the Digital Filmmaking Program.

“[Boseman] came here talented, focused, sharp,” Patrick DiRenna, president of the Digital Film Academy, told Forbes in 2019. “… I remember his face and the level of concentration in his eyes. You could see internal processes working,” DiRenna recalls. “At that time he was building himself. I could see he was putting the pieces together.”