His performances in ”Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom“ and ”Da 5 Bloods“ are powerful enough to make him a strong contender for not one but two posthumous nominations
Only eight actors in history have been nominated for Oscars posthumously. Only 12 actors have been nominated twice in the same year. Chadwick Boseman, sadly, could make history this Oscar season by winding up on both of those lists.
The actor, who died in August of this year after a battle with colon cancer that he hadn’t publicly disclosed, has been considered a solid Best Supporting Actor contender for months for his role in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods.” And with initial press screenings of George C. Wolfe’s Broadway adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” taking place this week, Boseman makes a formidable case for Best Actor attention as well.

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Despite the way the Tonys classified the role, the Oscar campaign does not feel like category fraud. The film adaptation of August Wilson’s play, with a screenplay by Ruben Santiago-Hudson, makes Levee more central to the action. While you could argue that it’s an ensemble piece and Boseman could be considered a supporting actor along with the rest of the actors who play blues icon Ma Rainey’s band, he comes across as a lead every bit as much as Viola Davis does in the title role.
Partly, that’s because the trims that were made to Wilson’s original play only serve to make Levee more prominent. Partly, it’s because of the way Broadway veteran Wolfe films the action: When the bandleader, Cutler (Colman Domingo), has a key monologue in the middle of the film, we hear much of it while the camera is fixed on Levee’s face, as he listens from a hallway outside the room.
And partly, it’s because Boseman himself is so commanding in the part. Full reviews are embargoed until Nov. 20 — but as a 1927 jazzman who embraces a newer, livelier sound and thinks of Ma Rainey’s blues standards as outdated, he is a cocky, manic presence at first, and a more complex and tortured one as the film goes on. In a way, Levee has a bigger emotional journey than Davis’ Ma Rainey, who is a richly demanding and unforgiving force of nature from start to finish.
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While Boseman’s performance wouldn’t have needed sentiment to get on voters’ radar, the actor looks thin and feral in a way that fits the wired and jittery character but becomes more poignant when you realize his cancer was likely responsible for at least some of the look.
It’s a stylized, theatrical film, and Boseman embraces Wolfe’s approach to the material. The performance should be enough to put him near the top of the roster of Best Actor contenders, with Anthony Hopkins in “The Father,” Gary Oldman in “Mank” and Delroy Lindo in “Da 5 Bloods.”
Speaking of that last film, Boseman is also in the thick of the Best Supporting Actor race for a much smaller performance. The story is set in the present day, as four Black veterans return to Vietnam to look for the remains of their squad leader and the treasure they buried 50 years earlier. Boseman plays the squad leader and only appears in flashbacks, but his scenes are crucial ones, and he makes enough of an impact to definitely be in play when voting begins next year.
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During his lifetime, Boseman’s only mainstream Hollywood honor was the Screen Actors Guild Awards’ ensemble award for “Black Panther.” But any kind of recognition by the Academy would be historic, in a variety of ways.
To date, 62 posthumous nominees have received a total of 79 nominations, and they’ve won 16 times. Only eight of those nominations have been in acting categories, with James Dean, Jeanne Eagels, Peter Finch, Heath Ledger, Ralph Richardson, Spencer Tracy and Massimo Troisi all nominated after their deaths (Dean twice), and Ledger and Finch winning.
Ten people have received two or more posthumous nominations in the same year; the only actor on that list is Troisi, but just one of his two nominations was for acting. (The other was for writing “Il Postino.”) James Dean received two posthumous acting nominations, but they came in separate years, for 1955’s “East of Eden” and 1956’s “Giant.”
And while it’s common for people to receive multiple nominations in the same year, it’s very rare for actors to do so. Academy rules specify that a person cannot be nominated twice in the same acting category, so the 12 times it has happened have all involved one nomination for Best Actor or Best Actress, and another for Best Supporting Actor or Best Supporting Actress.
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Fay Bainter was the first to do it, for “White Banners” and “Jezebel” in 1938; Scarlett Johansson was the most recent, for “Marriage Story” and “Jojo Rabbit” last year. Barry Fitzgerald was the oddest case, because both of his nominations were for the same performance, in 1944’s “Going My Way.” (The Academy subsequently changed the rules so that even if an actor gets enough votes to warrant a nomination in both categories, it only counts in the category in which he or she receives the most votes.)
So if Boseman is nominated for either “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” or “Da 5 Bloods,” he’ll be only the ninth actor to be honored after his death. If he’s nominated twice posthumously, he’ll join only James Dean in that category and become the first to do it in a single year.
And at this moment in a strange Oscar year, Boseman seems very likely to make history.
Chadwick Boseman's 10 Most Memorable Roles, From Jackie Robinson to Black Panther (Photos)
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Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer on Friday at age 43, made a striking impression in both TV and on the big screen in his too-short time in the spotlight.
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ABC Family
Nathaniel Ray, "Lincoln Heights" (2008-09)
Chadwick Boseman had popped in small TV roles in the early 2000s but he had his first major breakthrough role in this ABC Family drama as a member of the U.S. Army who belatedly learns he's the son of the series lead (Russell Hornsby).
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NBC
Graham McNair, "Persons Unknown" (2010)
He followed "Lincoln Heights" with a role on a short-lived NBC drama about a group of strangers who find themselves plunked into a ghost town.
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Warner Bros.
Jackie Robinson, "42" (2013)
Boseman landed his first lead role on the big screen in Brian Helgeland's biopic of Jackie Robinson, the first Black player to break into Major League Baseball. He starred opposite Harrison Ford, who played the Brooklyn Dodgers' general manager.
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Lionsgate
Vontae Mack, "Draft Day" (2014)
Boseman switched sports for his next role, as top linebacker prospect from Ohio State who's considered a safe No. 1 pick for a Cleveland Browns GM played by Kevin Costner.
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Universal
James Brown, "Get on Up" (2014)
Boseman left the playing field but returned to the biopic genre for this next project, Tate Taylor's look at the rock legend James Brown.
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Netflix
Jacob King, "Message From the King" (2016)
In this Netflix film, Boseman plays a South African man who arrives in Los Angeles searching for his missing younger sister -- and then embarks on a vengeance quest in an unfamiliar city.
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Disney
Black Panther (2016-19)
After making an introduction in "Captain America: Civil War," Boseman helped create a cultural phenomenon with the success of 2018's standalone "Black Panther" as the prince of the fictional African nation of Wakanda who becomes a superhero beyond his isolated realm. The film grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.
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Open Road
Thurgood Marshall, "Marshall" (2017)
Boseman returned to playing famous historic figures in Reginald Hudlin's courtroom drama -- which narrowed its look at Thurgood Marshall to an early case he tried as a lawyer for the NAACP, long before he ever imagined taking a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court.
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STX Entertainment
Andre Davis, "21 Bridges" (2019)
In this thriller, Boseman plays an NYPD detective in the midst of a manhunt for two cop-killers as he discovers that his fellow officers may be up to shady business themselves.
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Netflix
Stormin' Norman, "Da 5 Bloods" (2020)
Boseman has a small role in Spike Lee's Vietnam-set drama as the leader of all-Black squadron sent to recover the cargo from a downed CIA helicopter. Though he only appears in flashbacks, he makes a striking impression.
The actor died Friday at age 43 of colon cancer
Chadwick Boseman, who died of colon cancer on Friday at age 43, made a striking impression in both TV and on the big screen in his too-short time in the spotlight.
Steve Pond
Steve Pond has been writing about film, music, pop culture and the entertainment industry for more than 40 years. He has served as TheWrap’s awards editor and executive editor, awards since joining the company in 2009. Steve began his career writing about music for the Los Angeles Times, where he remained a contributor for more than 15 years, and Rolling Stone, where he was West Coast Music Editor and wrote 16 cover stories. He moved into film coverage with a weekly column in the Washington Post and became a contributing writer at Premiere magazine, where he became the first journalist to have all access to the Academy Awards show and rehearsals. He has also written for the New York Times, Movieline, the DGA Quarterly, GQ, Playboy, the Christian Science Monitor, USA Today, New York, the Christian Science Monitor, Live! magazine and many others. He is the author of the Los Angeles Times bestseller “The Big Show: High Times and Dirty Dealings Backstage at the Academy Awards” (Faber and Faber, 2005). He has also written “Elvis in Hollywood” (New American Library, 1990) and contributed to books that include “Cash,” “The Rolling Stone Reader,” U2: The Rolling Stone Files,” “Bruce Springsteen: The Rolling Stone Files” and “The Rolling Stone Interviews: The 1980s.” He was the co-managing editor of the syndicated TV news program “The Industry News” and the creative consultant for the A&E series “The Inside Track With Graham Nash.” He has won L.A. Press Club awards for stories in TheWrap, the Los Angeles Times and Playboy, and was nominated for a National Magazine Award for a story in Premiere.