Chadwick Boseman’s final performance honoured at the SAG Awards

The late actor is a major contender ahead of the Oscars later this month.

Chadwick Boseman’s final performance was honoured at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where his widow, Simone Ledward Boseman, delivered a moving acceptance speech (SAG Awards via AP)

By Keiran Southern, PA Los Angeles Correspondent

April 05 2021 04:16 AM

Chadwick Boseman’s final performance was honoured at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where his widow delivered a moving acceptance speech.

Boseman, who died in August last year aged 43 following a four-year battle with colon cancer, won the male actor in a leading role prize.

He was honoured for his portrayal of ambitious trumpeter Levee Green in Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

In this video grab provided by the SAG Awards, Simone Ledward Boseman, wife of the late Chadwick Boseman, accepts the award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” on his behalf during the 27th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on April 4, 2021. (SAG Awards via AP)

It was his final film credit.

Boseman’s wife, Simone Ledward Boseman, accepted the award in his memory and thanked the cast and crew of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom before quoting her husband.

She said: “’If you see the world unbalanced, be a crusader that pushes heavily on the seesaw of the mind’. That’s a quote by Chadwick Boseman. Thank you, Screen Actors. Thank you, Chad. Thank you.”

Boseman’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom co-star Viola Davis won female actor in a leading role and paid tribute to him in her acceptance speech, as did Daniel Kaluuya after winning a supporting gong for Judas And The Black Messiah.

Thank you Simone Ledward Boseman for your strength and grace 🤍 #sagawards pic.twitter.com/hV6v0HIBUU
— SAG AwardsÂ® (@SAGawards) April 5, 2021

Boseman entered the ceremony having set a record as the first actor to earn four nominations in the film categories at the SAG Awards in a single year.

The US actor, best known for Marvel’s superhero blockbuster Black Panther, was also recognised for his supporting role in Da 5 Bloods and as part of the casts of that and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Boseman, who also won a Golden Globe for playing Levee, is nominated for a Bafta and an Oscar.

He is widely tipped to win both.

Boseman previously won a SAG Award as part of the cast of Black Panther in 2019.