‘Shaft’ star Richard Roundtree dies at 81
Richard Roundtree, who rose to fame as the main character in the motion picture “Shaft,” died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 81. He changed how African Americans were portrayed as men in movies.
At the age of 29, Roundtree shot to fame with the revolutionary blaxploitation film “Shaft,” which debuted in 1971. His portrayal of John Shaft, a self-assured private investigator in the film, is characterized by his own sense of style, which includes a brown leather coat and a prominent mustache.
Even more, he keeps a pearl-handled handgun in the refrigerator of his Greenwich Village residence.
Mr. Roundtree became well-known thanks to the film “Shaft,” which also attracted attention for its Oscar-winning theme song by Isaac Hayes. Shaft was portrayed in the song as an endearing person who was self-assured and not scared of danger.
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The gritty tone of the film was enhanced by the urban cinematography of director Gordon Parks. Characters such as Shaft, who existed before feminism gained traction, had easy access to women and had a life akin to that of Playboy magazine.
But he wasn’t always kind to them. He was likened to James Bond by some, both favorably and unfavorably, but in a Black setting.
There were even more thrilling pursuit scenes with speedboats and helicopters, as well as more seductive women like exotic dancers and other men’s mistresses, in the 1972 follow-up “Shaft’s Big Score!” In this film, Shaft ignored advise to avoid Queens and used larger weaponry to investigate the death of a numbers runner.
In “Shaft in Africa” (1973), which was primarily shot in Ethiopia, Shaft assumed the identity of a local in order to infiltrate and expose a criminal organization that preyed on immigrants traveling to Europe. Sadly, the commercial reception to this second sequel was poor, and it resulted in a brief seven-week CBS TV series.
Source : nytimes
‘Shaft’ star Richard Roundtree dies at 81
