Richard Roundtree, the actor who redefined African American masculinity in the movies when he played the title role in “Shaft,” one of the first Black action heroes, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles.
The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his manager, Patrick McMinn, who said that it had been diagnosed two months ago.
“Shaft,” which was released in 1971, was among the first of the so-called Blaxploitation movies, and it made Roundtree a movie star at 29.
The character John Shaft is his own man, a private detective who jaywalks confidently through moving Times Square traffic in a handsome brown leather coat with the collar turned up; sports a robust, dark mustache somewhere between walrus-style and a downturned handlebar; and keeps a pearl-handled revolver in the fridge in his Greenwich Village duplex apartment.
As Roundtree observed in a 1972 article in The New York Times, he is “a Black man who is for once a winner.”
Persons:
Richard Roundtree, Patrick McMinn, John Shaft, jaywalks, Roundtree, ”
Organizations:
New York Times
Locations:
Los Angeles, Greenwich