Chadwick Boseman's Real Name: Chadwick Aaron Boseman

Quick answer: Chadwick Boseman's full name was Chadwick Aaron Boseman. He was born on November 29, 1976, in Anderson, South Carolina. He played Jackie Robinson in 42, James Brown in Get On Up, and T'Challa in Black Panther. He died of colon cancer on August 28, 2020, in the Los Angeles area, at 43 (Britannica; AP).

Real name and early life

Britannica lists him as Chadwick Aaron Boseman and gives his birth date as November 29, 1976. The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Boseman, Chadwick." Its source notes give the year as 1977. Britannica's date matches AP's report that he was 43 when he died in 2020.

Britannica says he was the youngest of three children. His father worked for an agricultural company and did upholstery on the side, and his mother was a nurse. He played basketball in high school, and after a teammate was shot and killed he wrote a play, discovering that he felt called to be a storyteller. He studied directing at Howard University (B.F.A., 2000). As a student he took a 1998 summer acting program at Oxford; AP reports Denzel Washington funded the scholarship that paid for it.

Career highlights

After college Boseman taught acting at the Schomburg Center in Harlem and wrote and directed plays, including Hieroglyphic Graffiti (2001) and Deep Azure (2005). He appeared on Third Watch, Law & Order, ER, and Lincoln Heights, and made his film debut in The Express (2008).

Playing Jackie Robinson opposite Harrison Ford in 42 (2013) made him a star, AP says, and his James Brown in Get On Up (2014) was widely praised. He first played T'Challa, king of Wakanda, in Captain America: Civil War (2016). He then portrayed a young Thurgood Marshall in Marshall (2017) before leading Ryan Coogler's Black Panther (2018). AP notes that the film earned more than $1.3 billion worldwide and is the only Marvel Studios film nominated for the best picture Oscar.

His last role was the musician Levee in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020), adapted from a play by August Wilson. It brought him a posthumous Academy Award nomination.

Illness and death

AP reported that Boseman was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer in 2016 and never spoke about it publicly. He kept working through "countless surgeries and chemotherapy," his family said. He died at home with his wife and family on August 28, 2020.

Name notes for searchers

Chadwick Boseman was his real name; Aaron was his middle name. Library records list his birth year as 1977, but Britannica and AP's age at death point to 1976.