Richard Roundtree, Groundbreaking ‘Shaft’ Star, Dead at 81
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Richard Roundtree, who starred as the memorable detective in 1971’s Shaft, died Tuesday. He was 81.
“Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for African American leading men in film,” Patrick McMinn, who was his manager since 1987, said in a statement. He told the Hollywood Reporter that the actor died at his Los Angeles home of pancreatic cancer.
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Samuel L. Jackson, who portrayed John Shaft’s (Roundtree) nephew in the 2000 sequel to Gordon Park’s 1971 action film, shared a tribute to Instagram following the news of his death. “Richard Roundtree, The Prototype, The Best To Ever Do It!!,” Jackson wrote. “SHAFT, as we know it is & will always be His Creation!! His passing leaves a deep hole not only in my heart, but I’m sure a lotta y’all’s, too. Love you Brother, I see you walking down the Middle of Main Street in Heaven & Issac’s Conducting your song,” he added, citing a line from Isaac Hayes’ Oscar-winning song “Theme from Shaft.”
Roundtree was diagnosed with cancer in 1993 and raised awareness about male breast cancer, traveling the country to share his experiences. “The doctor told me, ‘You have breast cancer,'” recalled Roundtree to ABC in 2009. “I heard the cancer part first — it was only later that I heard the breast part. I couldn’t believe it.”
“Not talking about my cancer was really tough,” he said. “And now that I do talk about it all the time, it’s really become a backhanded blessing. I was getting on a plane recently and a flight attendant ran up to me and said ‘You saved my husband’s life.'” He said her husband agreed to get a lump in his chest checked out after she showed him an article about the actor.
The actor also played the role of Sam Bennett in 1977’s miniseries Roots, based on the novel by Alex Haley. The film produced the third largest audience in television history at the time and ignited conversations about race and history across America.
The revered actor also played a father of a Black Mississippi family facing inequality in the south for 1996’s Once Upon a Time… When We Were Colored.
Roundtree made his film debut at the age of 28 with Shaft, adapted from the 1970 novel by Ernest Tidyman. The MGM release garnered $12 million in ticket sales off of a $500,000 production budget, helping save the then-struggling studio from bankruptcy.
He returned for Shaft’s Big Score! in 1972 and Shaft in Africa in 1973. Roundtree reprised his role for a 1973 CBS series that lasted seven episodes, and the 2000 sequel with Jackson.
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