(Washington) American actor Richard Roundtree, considered the “first black action film hero”, for his 1971 role in Shaft, died Tuesday at the age of 81, several American media reported.
Known for opening new doors for black actors, Richard Roundtree died near his family “after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer,” said 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 appears on screen, notably in the series Cherish the Day, and the comedy Moving On in 2022.
“Richard’s work and career served as a turning point for the first African-American male roles in cinema,” said his agent Patrick McMinn, in a statement to Variety magazine.
Shaft is considered a cult film and founder of “Blaxpoitation”. This 1970s genre was sometimes praised for enhancing the image of African Americans in the United States, while its detractors say it only reinforced certain stereotypes.
“I saw him 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, have come up to 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 worked hard to establish a different side to the way I play,” the actor testified.
