Richard Roundtree, the man who was simply Shaft to many of us, dies at 81

He’s a bad mother; shut your mouth; but I’m talking bout Shaft

By Randy Fling
Oct 25, 2023
12:06 am

There are 5-10 movies that inevitably must be mentioned when one talks about the Blaxploitation genre of films from the early 70’s. The Mack, Dolemite, Foxy Brown, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, Black Caesar, Superfly, Three the hard way, Coffy, and Cotton Comes to Harlem all come to mind. But there is one that lead the way and that movie was Shaft in 1971.

Richard Roundtree played Shaft, a private detective who was not only not scared to “stick it to the man”, he enjoyed it. He was the first Black action hero and was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role in the film.

Roundtree went on to have a 50-year cinematic career with roles in over 75 movies as well as many television appearances. The Shaft series included Shaft in Africa and Shaft’s Big Score along with a John Singleton directed Shaft remake in 2000 and a follow up Shaft in 2019.

Roundtree was married and divorced twice and had five children. According to ABC news, “His longtime manager, Patrick McMinn, confirmed to ABC News Roundtree died following a brief battle with pancreatic cancer. He said Roundtree’s family was at his bedside.”