Actor Richard Roundtree, who debuted in the 1971 “Shaft” film franchise’s first installment as John Shaft, has passed away.
He was 81 years old.
Patrick McMinn, his manager, of McMinn Management & Artists & Representatives Agency, issued a statement confirming his passing. He claimed Roundtree had pancreatic cancer & died Tuesday afternoon.
McMinn claimed that his family was by his side.
“Artists & Representatives Agency mourns the loss of our friend & client Richard Roundtree,” he stated.
Even though it wasn’t the reason for his demise, Roundtree was a well-known survivor of breast cancer. After receiving a breast cancer diagnosis in 1993, he started advocating for males to be more aware of the disease.
According to his IMDb biography, Roundtree was born in New Rochelle, New York, attended Southern Illinois University for football, and did some modeling.
According to the profile, he was lured to the theater and joined New York’s renowned Negro Ensemble Company. He then starred off-Broadway as Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope” until the position of John Shaft became available.
For its use of Isaac Hayes’ hit song of the same name and additional music he composed for it, the 1971 film directed by the renowned Gordon Parks received Oscars for Best Music & Original Song. The character of John Shaft, the “hotter than Bond, cooler than Bullitt” private eye, transformed Roundtree’s life and the direction of Hollywood by presenting him as an unashamed protagonist and underground criminal warrior.
“Shaft” “introduced into mainstream cinema the African American action hero; till then, action-hero roles had been reserved for white actors,” according to a review of the movie published by the University of Maryland, Baltimore County for their Online Film Festival.
The box office and critical acclaim of “Shaft” sparked a brief but significant surge of big-budget Hollywood productions with strong Black leads. Additionally, it gave Roundtree a variety of acting chances, with his face appearing to be on the screen constantly at moments.
Television series like “ChiPs,” “Magnum P.I.,” “Desperate Housewives,” “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Chicago Fire” are among his other accomplishments. Additionally, he starred in other action movies in the 1980s and 1990s, such as “Original Gangstas.”
Naturally, in more recent iterations of “Shaft” with Samuel L. Jackson, Roundtree played relatives or younger versions of himself.
For his narrator work on the 2002 PBS documentary “The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow,” Roundtree was honored with a Peabody Award.
With his muscular turtleneck and steel jaw, he embodied the quintessential Black man—a macho yet wise image. He was a brawler of the thinking man.
On the social media site X, which was once known as Twitter, Cheo Coker, the creator and star of the Netflix comic action hero series “Luke Cage,” stated, “My hero.” Luke Cage found great inspiration in this.”
“His trailblazing career altered the face of entertainment across the globe & his enduring legacy can be felt for generations to come,” stated McMinn.