Richard Roundtree made a detective’s independence look natural: he could hold our attention without asking for our affection. Shaft remains the place to start, though the reserve that gives him authority can also keep us at a distance.
Fi1m perspective
In the opening of Shaft (1971), Richard Roundtree strides through New York with the ease of a man who expects to get where he is going. Gordon Parks lets that physical confidence establish John Shaft before the detective story has much to offer. We enjoyed watching him more than we cared about the case, because his unhurried assurance made even the film’s thin stretches agreeable. It is a persuasive leading performance in a thriller that does not always deserve it.
As a Black private eye, Shaft gets the independence the genre routinely grants its detectives, and Roundtree makes it convincing without softening the man. Parks understands how much attention he can bear. The limitation is that we sometimes want a joke, or an unguarded response, rather than another demonstration of self-possession. Ernest Tidyman and John D.F. Black’s conventional screenplay gives him too little help, and Hugh A. Robertson’s editing lets the pace slacken.
His screen debut in Shaft made him a star, and the sequels kept him attached to the part. Leading roles beyond it proved harder to find; supporting work took him through the period drama of Roots (1977) and the thriller Se7en (1995). In Rian Johnson’s Brick (2006), he plays Assistant V.P. Trueman, one of the officials who became familiar assignments in his later career. We recommend that sharp, demanding high-school noir, though it offers a different reason to watch from the pleasure of following Roundtree through Shaft.
The later Shaft films put him back in the role as the elder man, including alongside Samuel L. Jackson in Shaft (2019). That association is understandable, but it can make a long working career look smaller than it was. Roundtree was frequently cast as an authority figure; the first film shows the pleasure of letting him take the lead instead. Start there, and allow the investigation a little more patience than it has earned.
Biography
Richard Roundtree was an American actor. He was best known for playing private detective John Shaft in the 1971 film Shaft and its sequels Shaft's Big Score! (1972), Shaft in Africa (1973), the 2000 film Shaft and the 2019 film Shaft.
Born in New Rochelle, New York, in 1942, Roundtree worked as a model before joining the Negro Ensemble Company. He received a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year – Actor for Shaft. His later credits included roles in Se7en (1995), George of the Jungle (1997), Speed Racer (2008) and the television series Heroes (2006) and Desperate Housewives (2004). He played Assistant Vice Principal Trueman in the 2006 film Brick.
Roundtree died in Los Angeles in 2023.
