At the Golden Globes, Sunday, it was an auspicious moment, tinged with sadness as the award for ‘Best Performance,’ in a motion picture – Drama – went to the Late  Chadwick Boseman for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.

Boseman’s wife Taylor Simone Ledward received the award; enlisted the people Boseman would have thanked – director George C. Wolfe, producer Denzel Washington, and Costar Viola Davis.

“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,” Ledward said, heavy-heartedly.

She concluded, “I don’t have his words, but we have to take all the moments to celebrate those we love, so thank you HFPA for this opportunity to do exactly that, and hun, you keep ’em coming.” 

Boseman died of colon cancer last August at age 43. His death sent shockwaves through Hollywood as the Black Panther star had kept his years-long battle against the disease, private.

Beating fellow nominees Gary Oldman (Mank), Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Anthony Hopkins (The Father), and Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian), this was Boseman’s first Golden Globes nomination and win.

Chadwick Boseman in ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ David Lee/Netflix

The star joins a handful of actors to win posthumous Golden Globes, including Heath Ledger, who won Best Supporting Actor in 2009 for The Dark Knight; Raul Julia, who won Best Actor in a TV Movie in 1995 for The Burning Season; and Peter Finch, who won Best Actor in a Drama in 1977 for Network.

Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom was Boseman’s final film to be released after his death, but not his only film of 2020. He also starred in a supporting role in Spike Lee’s Da 5 Bloods. The late actor scored nominations for both roles at this year’s SAG Awards and Critics Choice Awards.

Ifesinachi Nnabugwu reporting, Obinwannem News