Chadwick Boseman became an Academy Award nominee on Monday. With this year’s 93rd Oscar nominations, the late actor is recognized for Best Actor for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The nomination comes six months after Boseman’s death in August of 2020 at age 43, with Ma Rainey marking his final film role.
Boseman becomes only the fourth performer in Oscars’ history to be posthumously nominated for Best Actor. James Dean, Peter Finch, Spencer Tracy and Massimo Troisi all picked up nominations after their deaths, with Finch winning in 1977 for Network.
Boseman’s Oscar nominations cap off an awards season that has thus far seen him make history at the SAG Awards — as the first actor to earn four nominations in a single year — and win Best Actor awards at both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, with wife Taylor Simone Ledward accepting the honors on his behalf.
“It has to be said aloud that for those of us who know Chad intimately, personally, professionally, those he taught, those he gave a word for advice, those who taught him: it is so hard to find a celebratory feeling in these moments,” she said upon his Critics Choice win. “As proud as we are of him, yes for his work, but even more just for who he is as a person, but his work deserves this. His work in this film deserves this — he deserves this.”
