American actor Richard Roundtree, considered the “first black action film hero” after his role in Shaft in 1971, died on Tuesday October 24, several American media reported. He was 81 years old.
The actor is known for giving new perspectives to black actors. He died in Los Angeles near his family “after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer,” announced the specialist site Deadline.
Shaft, in which he plays the eponymous private detective John Shaft, was a huge success upon its release and led to several sequels and series. More than fifty years later, Richard Roundtree still appeared on screen, for example in the comedy Moving On, in 2022, and in the series Cherish the Day.
A cult film and founder of “blaxploitation”
“Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for early African-American male roles in cinema,” his agent, Patrick McMinn, said in a statement to Variety magazine.
Shaft is considered a cult film and founder of “blaxploitation”. This genre from the 1970s was sometimes praised for having upgraded the image of African-Americans in the United States. His detractors say he only reinforced certain stereotypes.
“I saw it as a double-edged sword,” Richard Roundtree said of Shaft on NPR 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. “The other side of the coin was that I was typecast for a while, and then I struggled to nuance the way I play,” the actor testified.