“Black Panther” Actress Dies

Actress Connie Chiume, from South Africa, passed away. She starred in Beyoncé’s Black Is King, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She was seventy-two.

Chiume’s family sent a message on Instagram announcing her passing on Tuesday at Johannesburg, South Africa’s Garden City Hospital. Her cause of death was not immediately known.

“The Chiume Family regrets to inform you of the passing of the internationally acclaimed award-winning actress Connie Chiume,” they wrote in a statement. “The Family asks for privacy during this difficult period. The family will communicate further details.”

Chiume, who was born in Welkom, South Africa, on June 5, 1952, completed her education as a nurse and earned a teaching degree before breaking into the film and television industries, according to The Independent. She didn’t begin her acting career until 1977, when she relocated to Greece to become a member of the cast of the musical “Sola Sola.”

Later, she gained greater recognition in South African communities as a result of her 1989 performance as Thembi in the television series “Inkom’ Edla Yodwa.”

From then on, she kept building her career as an actor, appearing in numerous additional productions and playing the role of Mamokete Khuse in the South African soap opera Rhythm City. These productions included “Warriors from Hell”, “The Line”, “I Dreamed of Africa”, “Yizo yizo”, “Zone 14”, “Home Affairs”, “Blessers, Umama” and “Jewel.”

The Oscar-winning movie Black Panther from 2018 also starred Chiume as an Elder of the Mining Tribe known as a Zawavari. Her character succeeded Zuri (Forest Whitaker) as Wakanda’s Elder Statesman in the 2022 sequel, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. She played the same role in that film.

She earlier stated in an interview with South Africa’s Sunday Times in 2022 that she had no idea Black Panther would become such a big hit. She said at the time, “I went to an audition not knowing what I was auditioning for. I went there and I was given a piece that I was supposed to do. I could see that this person is an African who was addressing the nation. I wore my African regalia, I learnt my lines. I did my best.”

In Beyoncé’s musical “Black Is King”, which interprets the worldwide icon’s soundtrack album “The Lion King: The Gift”, Chiume also played Sarabi, Simba’s mother.

She received numerous career-long accolades, including the 2000 NTVA Avanti Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her work in Soul City. She won the SAFTA in 2009 for best supporting actress in a drama for her work in Zone 14, over ten years after the film’s release.

Chiume leaves behind four children, according to The Independent. She was married from 1985 to 2004.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter