Chadwick Boseman Wins Golden Globe for Best Actor

Ryan Lattanzio
·2 min read
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Chadwick Boseman has won the award for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama at the 78th annual Golden Globes presented on Sunday night. The prize continues Boseman’s streak of posthumous wins throughout the movie awards season for his performance as Levee in George C. Wolfe’s August Wilson adaptation “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” available on Netflix. The award was presented by Renée Zellweger, and accepted by Boseman’s widow Taylor Simone Ledward. During a tearful speech, Simone Boseman said, “He would say something beautiful. Something inspiring. Something that would amplify that little voice inside of all of us that tells you you can, that tells you to keep going, that calls you back to what you are meant to be doing at this moment in history.”

The award marked Boseman’s first Golden Globe nomination and first win. In the Best Actor category, Boseman beat out Riz Ahmed for “Sound of Metal,” Anthony Hopkins for “The Father,” Gary Oldman for “Mank,” and Tahar Rahim for “The Mauritanian.”

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“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” is also up for a Golden Globe for Viola Davis, Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama.

Elsewhere in the ongoing awards season, Boseman is also nominated for a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Critics Choice Award, and is the favorite to beat for the Academy Award for Best Actor, though nominations won’t be announced until later this month. Boseman has also won numerous critics’ prizes throughout the year.

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” marked Boseman’s final onscreen role, though he is also an awards season player this year for his supporting turn in Spike Lee’s “Da 5 Bloods,” another Netflix film. That film earned Boseman the prestigious New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actor in December.

He also lent his voice to the upcoming Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe spinoff series “What If…?,” reprising his role as “T’Challa” from “Black Panther.” Marvel confirmed that Boseman’s role will not be recast in the upcoming live-action sequel to “Black Panther.”

Boseman died on August 28, 2020 at the age of 43 at the end of a private battle with colon cancer.

See the full list of 2021 Golden Globe Award winners so far here. Also, follow along with IndieWire’s film and TV predictions.

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