Loss

When famous people pass away there are two kinds of loss. For the family and friends, there is the loss that anyone in their position would feel on the loss of their loved one, because the famous person was, for them, just that: A loved one.

For fans a very keen part of the loss is the reality that they will produce no more work. Chadwick Boseman's death at 43 from colon cancer obviously strikes his family and his friends much more deeply than it does people who did not know him personally but knew his work. We, of course, are sad about the loss of someone that young but we also feel some loss over the work we will no longer be able to enjoy. Boseman was best known as T'Challa, the Marvel Comics hero Black Panther. But he had also played Jackie Robinson in 42 and Thurgood Marshall in Marshall -- two pioneers who were the first African-Americans in their respective arenas: Robinson in modern baseball and Marshall on the United States Supreme Court. He was an actor whose movies you could go see for the enjoyment of his performance, even if the movie itself might lack a little luster. That does indeed matter.

But what matters far more is that he was a husband, a son, a friend -- and my condolences and prayers to those who named him that whose loss is much greater than all of the wonderful performances now reserved for the stage eternal.