Shaft star, Richard Roundtree, dies at 81

Iconic actor Richard Roundtree, who made the role of detective John Shaft famous, is no more. The actor died at the age of 81 after a short battle with pancreatic cancer. Richard rose to fame with Gordon Parks’ 1971 action thriller and is considered an icon of Blaxploitation films.

His manager Patrick McMinn confirmed Richard’s death and said in a statement, “Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for African American leading men in film. The impact he had on the industry cannot be overstated.”

Richard Roundtree started off as a model. He then was cast in the role of Detective Shaft at the age of 28. It became an overnight sensation and earned $12 million in ticket sales off of a $500,000 production budget, helping to save the studio from bankruptcy. Shaft set the tone for a decade of Blaxploitation filmmaking and demonstrated Hollywood’s historical failure to consider Black talent and the moviegoing audiences that they could reach.

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Apart from this, Richard Roundtree also starred in the ensemble disaster film Earthquake,alongside Peter O’Toole in Man Friday and an ill-fated detective in Larry Cohen’s monster comedy Q — The Winged Serpent. He also made his return to the world of Shaft in director John Singleton’s 2000 revival of the franchise, starring Samuel L. Jackson. Although Jackson also played a detective named John Shaft, his character was written as the nephew of Roundtree’s original private eye.

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