Amidst the pandemic that hit the world by storm in mid-March of this year, the world has suffered the loss of two POC, successful, and influential actors in show business.
In early July, Naya Rivera who was best known for her role as Santana Lopez in teen musical drama Glee (2009-2015), went missing during a trip to Lake Piru in California with her young son Josey. She had been visiting the lake since her childhood and could swim, but this time Josey claimed that she had gone underwater and never came back up. Rivera was eventually presumed to be dead the next day. This prompted fury among fans that the LAPD and Ventura County were irresponsible and used the time of day as an excuse to not continue. Some even claimed that since she was a WOC (woman of color) her disappearance wasn’t taken as seriously as it should’ve been. Many were stating that if she were white, she would’ve been found sooner (Rivera was Afro Latina). Her family members and fellow Glee cast members even helped out and contributed to finding her safely. Fans had even used their own efforts to help finding her, signing petitions to ban swimming from Lake Piru in order to resume the search for her.
In the course of five days, she was officially pronounced dead, marking the first actress and third main cast member overall from Glee who had passed away in less than a decade.
In 2013, Cory Monteith, who had played Finn Hudson--the male lead and All American quarterback--passed away from an overdose of heroin and alcohol while the show was in it’s 5th season. Mark Salling who played Noah “Puck” Puckerman, Finn’s best friend, committed suicide during an ongoing sentencing trial in February 2018. It was also pointed out that Rivera was found dead the same day as Monteith, seven years apart (July 13th; Cory in 2013, Naya in 2020). Ironically, during the tribute episode to him called “The Quarterback”, she had sung “If I Die Young” which had the lyrics “sink me in the river at dawn” which basically alluded to her drowning.
Rivera made an impact on both POC and LGBT+ youth with representation in her role as Santana on Glee. Fellow colleagues, fans and cast members from her nearly 30 year career have spoken out about how much of an impact she has made on others as a whole, as well as admiring how she had saved Josey while she couldn't save herself due to her lack of energy to do so. Gestures included a group gathering of cast members at the Lake after she was found and the creators of Glee creating a college fund for Josey, who is now 6.
Chadwick Boseman, best known for his role as Black Panther/T’Challa in the Marvel franchise, passed away in late August of this year after complications of stage 4 colon cancer for which he had been battling for the past 4 years. He had kept it that away from the public during the time, similar to Disney Channel actor Cameron Boyce, who kept his battle with epilepsy secret for years. Boyce eventually died from it in his sleep last summer in 2019 at the young age of 20.
Some fans were quick to notice Boseman's appearances during the last few months of his life due to his frail and bony structure of his body as well as his speech patterns. While some fans had even made fun of his appearance calling him the nickname of “Crack Panther”, news outlets assuming that him losing weight was for a part in new movie role not knowing what it was really connected to.
Fans also had given Boseman praise for filming multiple of his well-known roles while he was in the fight for his life. Boseman gave African-American children a role model and superhero to look up to alongside the stereotypical Batman, Superman and Spiderman. Some networks even had viewings of Black Panther in his memory.
Both Chadwick Boseman and Naya Rivera are examples of what the media needs, strong POC figures who will be remembered inspiring youth for years to come.