Number 42 was foremost on the minds of Major League Baseball players who wore it last Friday. It was the number Jackie Robinson wore, and the day was set aside to honor his accomplishments, including breaking baseball’s color barrier.

But the number 43 also crept into the consciousness of baseball fans, because that’s how old Chadwick Boseman was when he died Friday. The actor who famously played Robinson in the 2013 biopic “42” and starred in so many other important films had succumbed to colon cancer after a four-year battle with the disease.

During those four years, between surgeries and chemotherapy treatments, Boseman played Thurgood Marshall, the Supreme Court’s first African-American justice, in “Marshall,” T’Challa in “Black Panther” and other movies, and the character of Levee in an as-yet-unreleased film version of August Wilson’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” The latter was filmed in Pittsburgh in 2019.

“As strange as this may sound, it didn’t make any sense to me when I heard the news (about Boseman’s death). I thought it was a prank or a sick joke,” said Paul Ellis, August Wilson’s nephew, who met Boseman on the set of “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.“

Ellis had a chance to watch Boseman shoot scenes as Levee, a character who in many ways embodies the heart of the Ma Rainey story. He is propelled by hurt, anger and ambition, possesses immense musical talent and has no patience for convention.

A virtual preview event for the film, set for Monday, has been delayed by Netflix, the film’s production company. It is still set for release later this year.

While not permitted to discuss specifics of Boseman’s performance, Ellis indicated that Wilson would have loved seeing him in the role.

“My uncle was very particular about identifying appropriate talent. For Chadwick Boseman to lend his talents to ‘Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom’ brings attention and furthers the profile of a character like Levee,” said Ellis, an attorney and adjunct professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

“It’s appropriate that someone like (Boseman) would star in an August Wilson play turned into a movie. It’s consistent with his other roles because he played heroes. Everybody knows about Thurgood Marshall and Jackie Robinson and so forth. In that same vein, August Wilson’s work identified the everyday heroes in the community and drove home in a powerful and effective way that everybody has a story, including Levee.”

Before Boseman began his illustrious film acting career, Pittsburgh Playwrights Theatre Company founder Mark Clayton Southers knew him as a writer. Southers brought him to Pittsburgh 11 years ago for an evening of scenes from plays by writers inspired by August Wilson. Boseman’s play was called “Deep Azure,” which he described as an experiment to push the boundaries of the genre of hip-hop theater.

“I didn’t know him as an actor. I just knew him as a playwright. But he was a damn good playwright,” said Southers. “We got him a plane ticket and paid him $500, and he came in. The show was at the New Hazlett Theater. After the show, he hung out with everybody. He was cool.”

Boseman’s life parallels Wilson’s in that it was cut short at the height of his artistic power — Wilson died of cancer at the age of 60. While Wilson’s body of work is inextricably linked to Pittsburgh, Boseman also leaves behind an important legacy tied to Pittsburgh.

“I hadn’t heard a word about him being ill or anything like that,” Ellis said. “I just couldn’t process it.”

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