:(
Poor guy. To have done so much while fighting cancer is insane.
- Damn.
This is such devastating news. He was such an amazing person :(
For the rest of 2020, I think I’ll reflect on this the next time I think, “woe is me.”
Maybe if we all did, 2020 wouldn’t seem quite as bad as it is.
What’s also kind of amazing is that in as gossipy an industry as the movie business is, no one let on about Boseman’s illness. He would’ve needed to disclose it for insurance purposes for all those films. And as surgeries happened, he probably would’ve had to tell casting directors that he couldn’t do shirtless without CGI.
Back in April a crappy comic site ran a “is Chadwick Boseman okay?” article because he looked rough in an Instagram video he posted. Very emaciated and unhealthy. They speculated maybe he was sick, but maybe it was for a role or something, no concrete info other than that he looked bad (which he did). But I never really saw any follow up on that, never saw it gain any traction in any more reputable sources. Maybe it was talked about elsewhere that I just didn’t see.
Super weird, in retrospect, that it didn’t get more attention. But good, I guess?
If I had to hazard a guess, the lockdown worked in his favor here, allowing him to limit and eventually cease public appearances as his condition deteriorated. I’m not sure why he chose to keep it private - there are plenty of reasons to have done so - but this year gave one of its biggest stars the otherwise unfathomable opportunity to face this on his terms without being preyed on by the relentless tabloid media. I suppose, for that, I am glad.
Because he thought he was going to beat it. And by the end when he realized he wasn’t, he stopped caring. This is common for people dying. They just “check out.” They just go through the motions without having any emotional attachment. It’s extra rough on the family, because the family wants to enjoy the remaining time with their loved one, but their loved one has - on some level - already left.
Citation needed.
I’m not sure what @Balasarius had in mind when he wrote that, so I can’t provide you with a journal citation, but anecdotally I can state that I lived through what he described. It’s exactly what happened with my 69 year old mother when she was dying of ovarian cancer. Whether or not Chadwick Boseman had a similar response to dying, I cannot say.
It always sucks when people die before their time.
He went to my high school, was a year ahead of me. I did not know him personally but was a big fan, local done good and all that. The wife and I had just watched Get on Up a few weeks ago. So sad and unexpected.
Terrible news. :( Da 5 Bloods is still in my Netfix watch list - may finally pull it out of the backlog tomorrow or so…
I’m guessing that at least some people at Disney must have been in the know on this, so it’s definitely surprising that Boseman’s battle with cancer did not become publicly known until now. I was also surprised to learn that he was 43 - honestly always felt way younger in interviews as such. I thought he was in his early 30s or so when he did Black Panther.
They would have had to have known, from insurance clearance.
And to address something up-thread, I do think that he thought he’d beat it, and probably, plausibly had good medical reasons to believe as much. Different cancers behave differently, but many of them are alike in that there can be non-linear progressions and regressions of the disease. And in even late stages of treatment, sometimes there’s still great hope…but also a risk that an infection or complication related to the disease can cause a rapid and sudden decline. It’s not implausible at all to me that something like this may have been the case with Boseman, but that’s pure speculation on my part.
I do not agree that people just check out on their own. If they are on chemo it wipes them out physically and than the pain meds will also make anyone lethargic.
What was he like in high school? Was he the king of the drama club and everyone knew he was going to Hollywood, or was he quiet and all the success came later?
Again, I didn’t know him at all, and only knew who he was when he got big with 42. I do know some people who were in drama with him. Consensus is that he was a popular all around great person. I don’t think they thought he would be as famous as he became, but not really surprised either though.
Often “near the end” there are no medical procedures. There is no more chemo. It’s been done, and the doctors have said they’ve done all they can. You are going to die, and there’s nothing anyone can do.
My dad lived around nine months after his final chemo treatment. But he wasn’t the same. He had already withdrawn. He knew it was over.