25-10-23 | Notable actor Richard Roundtree, known around the world for his breakthrough performance as detective John Shaft, passed away yesterday at the ripe old age of 81. He started his career in the early sixties as a model, appearing in commercials and cut his teeth as an actor on the New York stage. Gordon Parks’ Shaft put him on the map in 1972, through which he paved the way for black action heroes in American cinema.
Beyond Shaft, Roundtree had notable roles in many high profile classics of the late 70s and early 80s. In the cinema he contributed to Inchon, Escape to Athena (both war movies) and City Heat, co-starring opposite Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds. On television he hds a notable part in Roots, the groundbreaking series which depicting the lives of black slaves and their offspring. But nothing could beat his iconic performance in Shaft.
Though Shaft was hardly the first blaxploitation film of the era, it was one of the earliest produced by a major studio. Roundtree, director Parks and the entire team behind Shaft turned the black hero into a mainstream figure. Roundtree would return for two sequels and a brief television series, before Samuel L. Jackson took on the role. Rather then recasting, Jackson played Shaft’s nephew, allowing Roundtree to reappear in two more action thrillers before his death earlier this week.