(Washington) American actor Richard Roundtree, considered the “first black action film hero”, for his 1971 role in Shaftdied Tuesday at the age of 81, several American media reported.
Known for having helped open new doors for black actors, Richard Roundtree died with his family “after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer”, indicated the specialist site Deadline.
Shaftin 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 appeared on screen, notably in the series Cherish the Dayand 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 the magazine Variety.
Shaft is considered a cult film and founder of “Blaxpoitation”. This 1970s genre has sometimes been praised for enhancing the image of African-Americans in the United States, while its detractors claim that it only reinforced certain stereotypes.
“I saw him as a double-edged sword,” Richard Roundtree said of Shaft on NPR radio in 2019.
“But so many people, from all over the country, and even across the world, 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.