People
Richard Roundtree
Acting · follow into films and chains
Biography
Richard Arnold Roundtree (July 9, 1942 – October 24, 2023) was an American actor. He is noted as being "the first black action hero" for his portrayal of private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft, and its four sequels, released between 1972 and 2019. For his performance in the original film, he was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor in 1972. Roundtree died of pancreatic cancer at his home in Los Angeles. He was cremated at Chapel of the Pines Crematory. His family hosted a memorial service for him at Saint Catherine African Methodist Episcopal Church in New Rochelle, New York on February 17, 2024.
Notable films
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Chains
KinoChain journeys
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Death as Choreography: Eight Films of Inventive Demise
From cosmic indifference to moral punishment, these eight horror films treat death as a precise, theatrical art form. Each kill is a set piece, a statement, and...
8 films
The Mind's Eye: Crime Films of Obsession and Interiority
From a detective's haunted pursuit to a killer's fractured psyche, this chain traces cinema's most intimate crime stories, where the real action happens inside...
8 films
20 Home Video Releases Every Film Obsessive Should Own
There was a brief, glorious period in the late 1990s and early 2000s when buying a film on home video felt less like acquiring a product and more like being han...
20 films
The DVDs That Changed Everything
In the late 1990s, home video underwent a seismic shift driven by a double revolution: an unprecedented jump in technical quality, and an unprecedented access t...
10 films
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Related people
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Acted
Shaft
2019 · John Shaft, Sr.
What Men Want
2019 · Skip Davis
Speed Racer
2008 · Ben Burns
Speed Racer: Wonderful World of Racing - The Amazing Racer Family
2008 · Ben Burns
Brick
2006 · Assistant V.P. Trueman
Antitrust
2001 · Lyle Barton
Shaft
2000 · "Uncle" John Shaft
George of the Jungle
1997 · Kwame
Se7en
1995 · Talbot
Crack House
1989 · Lt. Johnson
Escape to Athena
1979 · Nat Judson
Earthquake
1974 · Miles Quade