When August Wilson received word in 2005 that he had inoperable Stage IV cancer, he had not yet accomplished two major things in an already notable and historic career.
"I think he felt proud of his achievements and faced death the way he faced life: courageously and uncompromisingly," said Constanza Romero, Wilson's widow, as well as his costume designer and all-around sounding board. "But August wanted two things to happen that hadn't happened. He wanted 'Jitney' (his 1970s-set play about Pittsburgh cab drivers) to finally be on Broadway. And he really, really wanted this movie to come into being."
"This movie" is an adaptation of his 1983 stage masterwork "Fences," which Wilson had been working on for so long that it at one time had cast a red-hot Eddie Murphy ... as a teenage character.
Five months after the diagnosis, Wilson died, the drama no closer to reaching the screen than when Paramount had optioned it in 1987.
More than a decade later, "Fences" is a feature-length production and has landed Wilson, who wrote the screenplay before his death, an Oscar nomination for the film directed by Denzel Washington and starring Washington alongside Viola Davis . (Both also received nominations for their roles.)
While there has been at least one person to receive a nomination (and win) over a decade after their death _ that'd be film composer Larry Russell who won an Oscar 18 years after he died for the Charlie Chaplin film "Limelight" _ most posthumous recognition comes within a year.
