Richard Roundtree, who played one of the first Black action heroes in the blaxploitation '70s era of film, died at 81 of pancreatic cancer on Tuesday in his Los Angeles home, his manager said.
The blaxploitation actor starred in the 1971 "Shaft" film series that depicted Roundtree's iconic character John Shaft, a private detective with a brown leather jacket with a turned-up collar and a dark mustache. The film's theme song even won an Oscar for best original song, describing Shaft as “a sex machine to all the chicks,” “a bad mother” and “the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.”
