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Richard Roundtree
Birthday: July 9, 1942 Birth
Place: New Rochelle, New York, USA Height: 6' 3"
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Biography
Blaxploitation superstar Richard Roundtree earned screen immortality during the 1970s as the legendary Shaft, "the black private dick that's the sex machine to all the chicks." Born July 9, 1942, in New Rochelle, NY, Roundtree attended college on a football scholarship but later gave up athletics to pursue an acting career. After touring as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, he joined the Negro Ensemble Company's acting workshop program in 1967. He made his film debut in 1970's What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?, but was still an unknown when filmmaker Gordon Parks Sr. cast him as Shaft. The role shot Roundtree to instant fame, launching the blaxploitation genre and proving so successful at the box office that it helped save MGM from the brink of bankruptcy. Thanks to the film's popularity — as well as its two sequels, 1972's Shaft's Big Score! and the following year's Shaft in Africa, and even a short-lived television series — Roundtree became an icon of '70s-era cool, and his image graced countless magazine covers. Outside of the Shaft franchise, he also appeared in films including the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake, 1975's Man Friday, and the blockbuster 1977 TV miniseries Roots. By the end of the decade, however, the blaxploitation movement was a thing of the past, and Roundtree's stardom waned; apart from the 1981 big-budget flop Inchon, he spent the 1980s appearing almost exclusively in TV roles or low-rent, direct-to-video features. Still, he continued working steadily, and in 1995 appeared in David Fincher's smash thriller Seven. The following year he co-starred in the acclaimed Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored, and also teamed with fellow blaxploitation vets Pam Grier and Fred "the Hammer" Williamson in Original Gangstas. In 1997, Roundtree returned to series television in 413 Hope St.
Has tried to dissassociate himself as a "Black Action Hero" ever since he portrayed his famed role as John Shaft in the three Shaft films. From Miles Quade (the African American motorcycle stuntman in an Evel Knievel mold in Earthquake (1974) to an elderly senior citizen in "Soul Food" (2000), he has came to terms with the fact that he will always be known as Shaft.
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1993, he is an advocate now and talks to men's groups about early detection.
Former Ebony Fashion Fair model
Went to Southern Illinois University on a football scholarship.
A member of New York's renowned Negro Ensemble Company, one of his best early stage roles was as black heavyweight boxing champ Jack Johnson (1878-1946) in "The Great White Hope."
Sidelines: Photographer and golfer.
His performance as John Shaft in "Shaft" (1971) is ranked #62 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time.
Naked Photos of Richard Roundtree are available at MaleStars.com. They
currently feature over 65,000 Nude Pics, Biographies, Video Clips,
Articles, and Movie Reviews of famous stars.