WASHINGTON: American actor Richard Roundtree, who played detective John Shaft in the action thriller ‘Gordon Parks,’ died Tuesday afternoon following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer, Variety reported.
He was 81 years old at the time. Patrick McMinn, his manager since 1987, announced his death.
McMinn said in his 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.”
Roundtree was a leading guy from the beginning of his career in film acting. After starting his modelling career, he secured ‘Shaft’ at the age of 28, marking his feature debut.
‘Shaft’ was a breakout blockbuster that set the tone for a fruitful decade of Blaxploitation filmmaking and illustrated Hollywood’s historical failure to acknowledge Black talent and the movie-going public that they could reach.
Within two years, two sequels about the ‘bad mother (stop your mouth)’ were released: ‘Shaft’s Big Score’ and ‘Shaft in Africa.’
Roundtree returned to the milieu of ‘Shaft’ in director John Singleton’s 2000 remake starring Samuel L. Jackson. Although Jackson also portrayed a detective named John Shaft, his character was intended to be Roundtree’s nephew. Both actors reprised their roles in Tim Story’s comic take on the series in 2019.
Roundtree, who was born on July 9, 1942, in Rochester, New York, briefly attended Southern Illinois University before dropping out to pursue a modelling career. He joined the Negro Ensemble Company in the late 1960s and began acting in New York stage shows.
Roundtree has worked on a regular basis for more than 50 years, with his legendary performance in ‘Shaft,’ extensive background in genre cinema, and captivating screen presence lending colour to the worlds of films such as ‘Se7en,’ ‘Brick,’ and ‘Speed Racer.’
He appeared in ‘Moving On,’ a comedy starring Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda that premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year before hitting theatres this summer.
Roundtree was married twice, the first time to Mary Jane Grant from 1963 to 1973, and the second time to Karen M. Cierna from 1980 until 1998. His four daughters, Nicole, Tayler, Morgan, and Kelli Roundtree, as well as his son, James, survive him. (ANI)