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Chadwick Boseman Honored with ‘Hero for the Ages’ at the MTV Movie & TV Awards

Kwaku Alston/Contour RA by Getty Images

Chadwick Boseman was chosen for the Hero of the Ages award for his inspiring and heroic acting career which came to an end much too quickly earlier this year.

This Sunday, MTV will air the special, “MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time” hosted by Vanessa Hudgens. The show is dedicated to honoring some of the greatest moments in film and television from the 80s, when MTV aired their first music video, to now. Hudgens will take viewers through the special, highlighting special awards, exciting presentations, and musical performances, of course. 

For Boseman’s award, Robert Downey Jr. and Don Cheadle are slated to present his award, two legendary names for one outstanding man. All three worked on Boseman’s entrance into the Marvel universe as Black Panther in Captain America: Civil War. While this was a fictional character, a symbol of Black pride and power, Boseman built his career on the portrayal of real figures from Black history. He played Jackie Robinson, the first professional Black baseball player, in 42, James Brown an iconic singer in Get On Up, and Thurgood Marshall, the first Black Supreme Court justice, in Marshall.

Boseman deserves this award for the mark he left in both film history and Black history, as he has become referred to as a pop culture icon for Black Panther. This film became the first Marvel production to be nominated for seven Academy Award nominations including Best Picture, a win from the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Actor in a Motion Picture, and a nod from SAG for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture. 

The “Greatest of All Time” awards will be held on December 6 at 8 pm ET/PT. Boseman’s final film, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom with Viola Davis will release on Netflix on December 18.