NASHVILLE, TN — Richard Roundtree had a lengthy, varied and impressive career, one that extended far beyond the signature role of John Shaft.
The longtime film and television actor, who passed last week at 81 of pancreatic cancer, had his major screen debut in the epic 1971 film “Shaft.” When MGM initially optioned the 1970 Ernest Tidyman novel about a private eye hired to rescue a gangster’s kidnapped daughter, they considered making the film about a white family.
Director Gordon Parks told the studio doing that would negate the true meaning and vision of the novel, and he pushed for both a Black theme and Roundtree. The result was one of the decade’s most iconic figures and a Black action hero.
But while Roundtree would portray the character in two sequels and a short-lived television series, he appeared in several other films and shows, among them “Roots” in 1977.
Some other top films that Roundtree participated include “Seven,” “City Heat,” “Earthquake” and the 2000 and 2019 “Shaft”updates.
But he also had a theatrical background, having been a member of the Negro Ensemble Company in the late 60s and before that one of the stars in the Ebony Fashion Fair.
“We need movies about the history of our people, yes” Parks said in assessing “Shaft” in 1972. “But we need heroic fantasies about our people, too. We all need a little James Bond now and then.”
Richard Roundtree perfectly fulfilled that fantasy.
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