Richard Roundtree, now a quietly dignified looking middle aged man, was a real tough guy in his one iconic movie role: detective John Shaft in the 1971 movie Shaft and its two sequels.
A sizeable former football player and male model, Roundtree was well cast as the tough-talking, hard-fighting Shaft. The movie was adapted from the novel Shaft, written by ex-New York Times editor Ernest Tidyman. Gordon Parks was director, and the music was by Isaac Hayes and J.J. Johnson. The movie's themesong won the 1972 Academy Award for best original song.
A big success at the box office, the movie was set in New York City amid turf battles between black and Mafiosi forces of that city's underworld.
In a 2000 remake of Shaft, Roundtree played the title character's uncle. In the late 1970s, Roundtree had a role in the TV miniseries Roots. He also had a short-lived role on the TV series Desperate Housewives, and he has appeared in many other movies, most of them of the easily forgetable sort.
No comments:
Post a Comment