American actor Richard Roundtree, considered by the general public and film critics as the “first black action film hero”, for his 1971 role in Shaft, died Tuesday October 24, 2023 at the age of 81, several reported American media.
This generous actor, who notably worked to open the doors of Hollywood studios to his African-American colleagues, died alongside his family “after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer,” indicated the specialized site Deadline. Shaft, in which he plays private detective John Shaft, was a huge success when it was released in the early 1970s and led to several sequels and series. More than fifty years later, Richard Roundtree still appeared on screen, notably in the series Cherish the Day, and the comedy Moving On in 2022. “Richard’s work and career served as a springboard, an example for first African-American male roles in cinema,” declared his agent Patrick McMinn, in a press release to Variety magazine.
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Shaft is considered a cult film and founder of “Blaxpoitation”. This 1970s genre has sometimes been praised for enhancing the image of African-Americans in the United States, while its detractors claim that it only reinforced certain stereotypes. “I saw it as a double-edged sword,” Richard Roundtree said of Shaft on NPR radio in 2019. “But so many people, from all over the country, and across the world even, came to see me and told me what this film meant to them in 1971,” he added, aware of its popularity.
Symbol of the action hero, Richard Roundtree, perfectionist, will make this astonishing confession at the end of his career: “The other side of the coin was that I was typecast for a while, and then I had to whip to show a another side of my game.