American actor Richard Roundtree died at the age of 81 on Tuesday October 24, 2023. He was known as the star of “Shaft” but also as “the first black action film hero”.
Hollywood is in mourning. Richard Roundtree died this Tuesday, October 24, according to the Deadline website. The 81-year-old American actor died surrounded by his family “after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer”, the specialist media tells us.
Richard Roundtree is a real figure in the United States since he is considered “the first black action film hero”. His agent said in a statement to Variety that “his work and career served as a turning point for the first African-American male roles in cinema.”
It is above all his role in the film Red Nights of Harlem (Shaft in the original version) which earned him this title, a film in which he plays the private detective John Shaft.
The success of the feature film earned it sequels (Shaft’s New Exploits and Shaft Against Man Traffickers) and series. He played the uncle and then the father of John Shaft, new incarnation by Samuel L. Jackson, in 2000 and 2019.
But Richard Roundtree didn’t just play John Shaft (or a member of his family). He was also seen in the films Earthquake, Kisses from Athens, Seven, George of the Jungle, and Brick and Speed ??Racer.
He is also a familiar face in certain American series, appearing in MacGyver (season 56 episode 1), Heroes (Charles Deveaux), Desperate Housewives (Jerry Shaw) or even Grey’s Anatomy (Donald Burke) and Mentalist (season 3 episode 11) . From 2019 to 2020, he had a recurring role in Welcome to Mamilia, which also marked his last appearance on screen.
