“Margaret Sullavan’s Hollywood career was not very lucrative but she made some good films. So few of them are seen, however except on the Late Night Movie on TV that her reputation stands less high than it should and seems confined to the people who loved her ‘back when’. She was an enchantress pitched in temperament and magnetism somewhere curiously enough between the two Hepburns.
She was warm and winning, honest and independent, playing with an underlying humour the patient and suffering heroines she was most often given. She spoke lightly and quickly, with inflections that enhanced the old drivel thought up for her.
Her mastery of both comedy and drama was complete. yet in life she suffered from a great lack of self confidence and was consequently one of the most difficult and temperamental of stars. Nor did she care for filming, which did’ntt help matters.” – David Shipman in “The Great Movie Stars” (1970).
Margaret Sullavan
Margaret Sullavan has a special place among film buffs. She had a glorious cinema presence which was accompanied by a beautifully modulated speaking voice.
She was born in 1909 in Norfolk, Virginia. She came to Hollywood in 1933 and made her debut in “Only Yesterday”. Her film career was not prolific, only sixteen films. However she glowed in such movies as “Little Man What Now” in 1934, “So Red the Rose” and “Three Comrades”. Her final film was “No Sad Songs for Me” in 1950. Thereafter she concentrated on the stage and died aged 50 in New Haven, Connecticut on 1st January 1960.
TCM overview:
A petite brunette with large eyes dominating her small, attractively angular face, Margaret Sullavan made her stage debut with the University Players (which included James Stewart and Henry Fonda) in Falmouth, MA, and entered films in 1933. With her husky voice and unique, magnetic charm Sullavan was an immediate success, proving herself airy and delightful in comedy (“The Good Fairy” 1935, “The Shop Around the Corner” 1939) and wistful and poignant in drama (“Only Yesterday”, her 1933 debut; “Three Comrades” 1938).
Her unstable temperament and her critical disdain for the Hollywood establishment, however, significantly reduced her screen output, facilitating her many returns to Broadway.
Margaret Sullavan
She was married to Henry Fonda, William Wyler and producer-agent Leland Hayward. Sullavan suffered a number of mental health problems (including severe depression brought on partly by increasing deafness in middle age) and died of a drug overdose. A family memoir, “Haywire” (1977), was written by her daughter, Brooke Hayward.
Trisha Noble began her show business career as a singer Patsy Ann Noble in her native Australia. She was born in 1944 in New South Wales. In the 1970’s she moved to California and guest starred in such TV series as “Colombo” and “Baretta”. In 1986 she returned to Australia and continued her career there.
IMDB entry:
Dick Clark, immediately signed her as a regular on his series “Bandstand”.
Around that time, Patsy Ann signed a deal with the HMV record label and issued her debut single “I Love You So Much It Hurts” in November 1960. She released three more singles on HMV, of which “Good Looking Boy” became her biggest hit when it reached #6 in Melbourne and #16 in Sydney. In 1961, she was the winner of the first Logie Award for the Best Female Singer on Australian Television. She followed that with a successful acting debut at the Independent Theatre, Sydney, playing the lead role of Carmel in “The Grotto”. Shortly thereafter, Patsy Ann and her mother left for London to further her career. She launched her British career in 1963 and shared her first BBC radio show withThe Beatles, with whom she also appeared on British television. During this period, she recorded for EMI (England and France) with some chart success and performed at the London Palladium and at the Olympia Theatre in Paris.
By 1965, she had turned to acting, taking the role of Francesca in the British thriller Love Is a Woman (1966). She toured England with Cliff Richard and began to work on English television in dramatic and variety shows. In 1967, she married law student Allan Sharpe. During that year, she changed her stage name from Patsy Ann to Trisha and continued to work in British television and film. In her early 20s, she appeared on an Engelbert Humperdinck musical special and was seen by an American producer, who signed her to star in revue at the Las Vegas Sands Hotel. After a six-month engagement, she moved to Los Angeles and made her home there, making guest appearances on various television series. Trisha returned to Australia briefly in the early 1970s and starred in the stage musical “Sweet Charity”. After seven years of marriage, she and Allan divorced and she threw herself into her work. Upon her return to the United States, she worked extensively in television series, miniseries and feature films.
In 1976, she wed American fashion model Scott MacKenzie and the following year gave birth to their son, Patrick. However, after four years of marriage, the couple divorced in 1980. Despite personal setbacks, Trisha’s acting career continued to thrive as she co-starred with Don Knotts and Tim Conway in The Private Eyes (1980) and she landed the role of Detective Rosie Johnson in the Aaron Spelling / Robert Stack police drama Strike Force (1981). In 1983, her father, Buster, had a heart attack and was not expected to live long. At that point, Trisha made a difficult and life-changing decision. She decided to leave her successful acting career in Hollywood to return home to Australia to be with her family. She enjoyed seven years with her father before his death in July 1990. In 1985, Trisha married pharmaceutical scientist Peter Field and started a mineral-water business, Noble Beverages. Several years later, though, her third marriage ended in divorce and the business fell on hard times. At that point, Trisha decided to sell the business and get back to her first love — show business.
In 1997, a 25-song CD collection of her early 1960s recordings was released: “The Story of Patsy Ann Noble: Hits & Rarities”. In August, she filmed a small role in the CBS miniseries Blonde (2001) and was cast in a secret role in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002). Shortly thereafter, Trisha was cast to co-star with David Campbell in the musical “Shout!” in the role of Thelma O’Keefe, mother of Australian rock ‘n’ roll star, Johnny O’Keefe. The musical opened on January 4, 2001 in Melbourne, Australia, and a cast recording followed in March. To top it all, she was nominated in May for an Australian Entertainment MO Award in the category: Female Musical Theatre Performer of the Year for her role in “Shout!”.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Tina Carwile
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
The Times obituary in 2021.
In 1962, when Patsy Ann Noble arrived in a wintry London, she was little known as a singer outside her native Australia. She expected she would face a hard slog if she wanted to make her name as a performer. Instead she soon found herself on tour with Cliff Richard and the Shadows, then one of the biggest bands in the country.
She released several singles, including Sour Grapes and Accidents Will Happen, and then featured on a radio programme with the Beatles, and a television show, Thank Your Lucky Stars, with the Rolling Stones. Appearances followed on such primetime variety programmes as Sunday Night at the London Palladium, Juke Box Jury, Ready, Steady, Go! and The Morecambe & Wise Show — all within her first 18 months in the UK.
Having something of a flair for self-projection, she then decided it was time the world saw that she could also act. “I was raised in a show business family as an all-round performer, not just a pop singer,” she explained. She was soon appearing in all-star revues such as the popular Five Past Eight Show at the Glasgow Alhambra in 1965 and in the 1966 production Night is for Delight, alongside Prunella Scales, Lance Percival and Elisabeth Welch, with sketches written by the likes of Harold Pinter and John Mortimer, at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre in Guildford.
In the poster of Death is a Woman (called Love is a Woman in the US), Noble recalled Racquel WelchALAMY
She also landed a role on television, playing a different comic character every week on The Dick Emery Show. After that, her ambition undimmed, she decided she wanted to be in the movies. In 1966 she made her acting debut as a sexy villainess in the lacklustre British spy film Death Is a Woman. Posters for the film showed her posing in her bikini in the manner of Raquel Welch.
After marrying Allan Sharpe, a law student, in 1967, she changed her professional name to Trisha Noble and relaunched herself with blonde hair but she continued to be offered the same mix of roles. Her part in Carry on Camping (1969) was cut back but she made an impression as the high priestess of the Vestal Virgins in the opening episodes of the Frankie Howerd comedy series Up Pompeii (1970).
During a visit back to Australia she complained about the British film industry’s attitude towards women. “A lot of wonderful actresses are out of work because they won’t strip,” she said. “I have turned down so many offers because I won’t degrade myself.”
Her change of direction may have paid off artistically, but there was still something missing. “For one full year,” she later said, “I didn’t see the sun at all. It was driving me crazy, waking up every morning and looking out at all that grey. I need sunshine to feel good inside.”
Noble went blonde and renamed herself Trisha in an effort to win better rolesREX FEATURES
While singing in an Engelbert Humperdinck television special, she was spotted by an American producer and invited to star in a revue at the Sands Hotel in Las Vegas. She went like a shot. “When I first saw LA it was as though I had come home, like I was immediately wrapped in a blanket that was home. It was amazing how I fell in love with it from the first moment I saw it,” she said.
From 1971 she notched up parts in a steady stream of American television shows, notably The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Columbo and The Rockford Files.
Julie Adams, who has died aged 92, starred opposite some of the screen’s most handsome actors, including Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis, Glenn Ford and Elvis Presley. Yet her enduring fame rests on the role of the inamorata of the title character of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).
The prehistoric amphibious creature, dubbed the Gill Man, with webbed hands, fish head and a scaly skin, first sees Adams, then billed as Julia, while she is swimming under water. The monster stalks and abducts her, taking her to his lair.
As Kay Lawrence, the only woman in a group of geologists in the Amazon, Adams convincingly conveys her terror of the creature. The trailer for Jack Arnold’s classic horror movie, which was first shown in 3D, describes Adams’s “beauty [as] a lure even to the man-beast from the dawn of time”.
Adams worked for Universal Pictures throughout the 1950s, mostly playing steadfast women, though generally seen only in terms of her relationships with men. Among her best films were distinguished westerns by masters of the genre – Anthony Mann, Raoul Walsh and Budd Boetticher.
In Mann’s superb Bend of the River (1952), Adams is a seductive settler falling in love with the wagon train guide (an embittered James Stewart). For Walsh’s The Lawless Breed (1953), she is a former saloon gal who finds redemption in her marriage to an ex-con (Hudson, a fellow Universal contractee). When soldier Ford is branded a coward in Boetticher’s The Man from the Alamo (1953), Adams is one of the few people who believes in him.
Born Betty May Adams in Waterloo, Iowa, she was the daughter of Esther (nee Beckett) and Ralph Adams, a travelling cotton buyer. Her family moved a great deal; the longest she lived in one place was eight years in Blytheville, Arkansas. After winning a beauty contest there, Adams left home, where her heavy drinking father was becoming abusive, to stay with an aunt in California.
There, she decided to pursue an acting career. It was not long before she was appearing in half-a-dozen shoestring westerns for Lippert Pictures. In 1951, she gained a Universal contract and a change of name, to Julia, and lost her southern accent. At the same time, the studio had her legs insured for $125,000, with the intention of exposing them as much as possible.
Her first leads for the studio were in Bright Victory, as a rich girl trying to adjust to her fiance (Arthur Kennedy) returning blinded from the war; and in a double role of a daughter and her silent movie star mother in the whodunnit Hollywood Story (both 1951). In The Mississippi Gambler (1953), she loses out to Piper Laurie in wooing Tyrone Power.
She more than ably fulfilled her decorative function in a string of solid dramas including Horizons West (1952) and One Desire (1955), both opposite Hudson, and Six Bridges to Cross with Curtis in 1955, where she was first billed as Julie.
Although Adams was much in demand in feature films, she lacked the je ne sais quoi that makes a great film star.
In fact, it was her male co-stars who were the box-office attractions. So when her Universal contract was up in 1957, she was able to transition into a rewarding television career lasting over five decades.
One noteworthy appearance in television history was as the only client of the defence lawyer Perry Mason ever to be convicted in the 60s series. More recently, Adams had a role in Murder, She Wrote, as an estate agent, Eve Simpson, and sometime-helper of amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher, played by Angela Lansbury (1987-93).
Among the roles in the few feature films she made following the end of her Universal contract was the “older” woman who makes a play for rodeo star Presley in Tickle Me (1965), and she was effective as cop John Wayne’s ex-wife in McQ (1974).
Her autobiography, The Lucky Southern Star: Reflections from the Black Lagoon, which she co-wrote with her son Mitchell, was published in 2011.
Adams was first briefly married to the screenwriter Leonard Stern. They divorced in 1953, and in 1955 she married the director and actor Ray Danton, with whom she appeared in The Looters (1955) and Tarawa Beachhead (1958). He died in 1992.
She is survived by their two sons, Steven and Mitchell.
• Julie (Julia, Betty May) Adams, actor, born 17 October 1926; died 3 February 2019
Richard Dawson wasborn in Hapmshire in 1932. He began his career in Britain as a comedian and played at the London Palladium.In the early 1960’s he moved to Hollywood and won fame on television’s “Hogan’s Heroes”. He also achieved fame as a game show host and as the star of the film “The Running Man” in 1987. He was married for a time to Diana Dors. He died in 2012.
“Los Angeles Times” obituary:
Richard Dawson, the British actor who went from comedy co-star in the popular TV series “Hogan’s Heroes” to his best-known role as the charming host of the TV game show “Family Feud” with his trademark of kissing the female contestants on the lips, has died. He was 79.
Dawson died Saturday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center from complications related to esophageal cancer. The actor, who had been living in Beverly Hills, was diagnosed with the disease about three weeks ago, said his son Gary.
“The way he was on the game show was the way he was in real life,” Gary Dawson said Sunday. “He was always rooting for people — he not only wanted people to win, but to have a comfortable, great experience.”
Dawson’s easy-going style topped with a Cockney accent were evident in his early films in the 1960s such as “King Rat,” “Munster Go Home” and “The Devil’s Brigade,” while his quick wit distinguished him both as a game show contestant in the 1970s on “Match Game” and “I’ve Got A Secret,” and as a performer on “The New Dick Van Dyke Show” and “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In,” where he was a regular cast member for two years.
IMDB entry:
Richard Dawson was born Colin Lionel Emm on November 20, 1932 in Gosport, Hampshire, England. When he was 14, he joined the Merchant Marines and served for three years. During that time, he made money boxing. He had to lie about his age and remain tough so the older guys would not hassle him. In the late 1950s, Richard met a British actress named Diana Dors. On April 12, 1959, while in New York for an appearance on The Steve Allen Plymouth Show (1956), the two were married. Richard and Diana’s first child, a son named Mark Dawson, was born in 1960, and a second son, Gary Dawson, was born in 1962. Richard and Diana separated in 1964 and eventually divorced in 1967. When Richard moved to the United States, he began acting on the well-known series, Hogan’s Heroes (1965), in 1965. Richard played the lovable British Corporal Peter Newkirk. The show ended in 1971. Not long after that, in 1973, he became a panelist onMatch Game 73 (1973) and remained there until 1978.
While still on “Match Game”, he hosted his own show, which he is most remembered by, called Family Feud (1976). His trademark, kissing all the female contestants, was one of the things that made the show a warm and friendly program, along with his quick wit, subtle jokes, and ability to make people feel at ease with being on camera. In 1987, Richard co-starred with Arnold Schwarzenegger in the science fiction action movie The Running Man (1987). Richard portrayed an egotistical game show host, Damon Killian, whom many say was a mirror image of himself at one time or another, during his real-life career.
When Richard was 61, he hosted the third incarnation of “Family Feud” in 1994, but had only a short run. On April 6, 1981, the Johnson family appeared on “Family Feud” and Richard was introduced to 27-year-old Gretchen Johnson. They had a daughter, Shannon Dawson (Shannon Nicole Dawson), in 1990, and were married in 1991. They were still married and reside in Beverly Hills, California. Richard narrated TV’s Funniest Game Show Moments (1984) on Fox in early 2000. On Thanksgiving Day, November 23rd, 2000, he hosted a “Family Feud” marathon, which was filmed in 1995. Some people hear the name “Richard Dawson” and may not know who you’re talking about. But say his name, followed by his famous quote “Survey said…!” or mention “Newkirk on Hogan’s Heroes(1965)”, and they’re sure to know who you mean. Richard Dawson died at age 79 of complications from esophageal cancer on June 2, 2012.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Lisa Hansen, RichardDawsonFan@aol.com
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Lee Horsley was born in Texas in 1955. He has starred in three popular TV series, “Nero Wolfe” in 1981, “Matt Houston” from 1982 until 1985 and “Paradise” from 1988 until 1991. His movies include “The Sword and the Sorcerer” in 1982 and “Showdown at Area 51! in 2007.
TCM overview:
Born in the tiny town of Muleshoe, TX, actor Lee Horsley started singing in church as a youngster in the Denver area, his vocal talents eventually leading him to tour in stage productions of “West Side Story”, “Damn Yankees”, “Oklahoma!” and “1776” prior to his arrival in Hollywood. He began his TV career as detective Archie Goodwin (opposite William Conrad) in the 1981 NBC drama series “Nero Wolfe” but is best known for his starring role as the detective “Matt Houston” (ABC, 1982-1985). A true outdoorsman, who enjoys fly fishing and horseback riding and participates in celebrity rodeos and other sporting events, Horsley has lent his six-foot-four-inch rugged good looks to a wide array of TV-movies, including “Agatha Christie’s ’13 at Dinner'” (CBS, 1985), “Danielle Steele’s ‘Palomino'” (NBC, 1991) and “The Corpse Had a Familiar Face” (CBS, 1994), as well as two ABC miniseries, “North and South: Book II” and “Crossings” (both 1986), adapted from the best-selling novel by Danielle Steele.
After short series runs with “Guns of Paradise” (ABC, 1988), “Bodies of Evidence” (ABC, 1992-93) and “Hawkeye” (syndicated, 1994-95), Horsley landed the part of wealthy rancher Gardner Poole (opposite Bo Derek) on NBC’s very short-lived “Wind on Water” (1998). His only feature appearance (to date) was as the star of “The Sword and the Sorcerer” (1982), a film that has acquired through the years a devoted following among fantasy film buffs. He took time away from Hollywood in 1987 and 1988 to return to his great love, musical theater, playing legendary silent screen director Mack Sennett in the revival of Jerry Herman’s “Mack & Mabel” at the Paper Mill Playhouse in New Jersey.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Joy Harmon was born in 1940 in Flushing, New York. In the 1960;s she was featured in some interesing Hollywood movies such as 1965’s “The Love One” and “Cool Hand Luke” with Paul Newman.
IMDB entry:
Born in Flushing, New York, the impressively endowed Patty Jo Harmon was discovered as a guest on You Bet Your Life (1950) by Groucho Marx and later was invited to work with him on Tell It to Groucho (1962). The TV exposure parlayed into roles in such obscure films as Village of the Giants (1965) and more famous fare like Cool Hand Luke(1967), but she was used mostly for eye candy. With only a handful of television appearances to her name, she made a bigger career as a pin-up girl during the late 1960s and early 1970s, but she ultimately retired from acting to get married and start a family. Baking has always been a favorite pastime and she since started Aunt Joy’s Cakes. She first started sharing her treats while working at Disney Studios and runs a wholesale bakery based in Burbank, California.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: William Uchtman <aesgaard41@hotmail.com> (qv’s & corrections by A. Nonymous)
The above IMDB entry can also be accessed online here.
Tisha Sterling was born in Los Angeles in 1944. She is the daughter of Ann Sothern and Robert Sterling. She made her acting debut on her mothers television in 1960. In 1968 she gained favourable reviews for her performance opposite Clint Eastwood in “Coogan’s Bluff”. In 1987 she played the younger version of her mother’s character in the wonderful “The Whales of August” with also starred Lillian Gsh, Bette Davis and Vincent Price.
In 1987, Sterling played a younger version of her mother’s character (in flashbacks) in The Whales of August. Following that role, she appeared in two other films. Sterling made her last onscreen appearance to date in the 1999 film Breakfast of Champions, opposite Bruce Willis. She has since retired from acting, and currently resides as a florist in Ketchum, Idaho(where her mother lived for many years until her death in 2001) with her daughter, Heidi Bates Hogan.
The above “Wikipedia” entry can also be accessed online here.
Vincent Baggeta was in born in 1947 in New Jersey. A familiar face on television in the 1970’s and 80’s, he made his TV debut in an episode of “The Defenders” in 1962. His films include “Murder on Flight 502” in 1975,
Richard Roundtree is a cultural icon always remembered for his iconic performance in the title role in the movie “Shaft” in 1971. He was born in 1942 in New York. He also starred in the sequels “Shaft’s Big Score” and “Shaft in Africa”. Other movies include “Embassy”, “Escape to Athena” with Roger Moore and David Niven, “A Game for Vultures” with Richard Harris and Joan Collins and “Brick” in 2005.
TCM overview:
This handsome black lead made his name as the smooth title character in the classic action film “Shaft” (1971), which while not exactly a blaxploitation movie itself, spawned a generation of them. Richard Roundtree subsequently starred in two sequels–“Shaft’s Big Score” (1972) and “Shaft in Africa” (1973)–as well as a CBS TV series, “Shaft” (1973-1974) before settling in as a second lead and occasional star of various projects. There were years during the 1980s when the “Shaft” stigma seemed to put an early end to Roundtree’s career, but he bounced back in the 90s with numerous films and TV shows. He was tapped to lead an ensemble cast, playing the head of a center for troubled teens in the Fox drama series “413 Hope Street” (1997).
Roundtree was a virtual unknown, having appeared only in “What Do You Say to a Naked Lady?” (1970), when he was chosen by Gordon Parks to play “Shaft”. Based on his success, he landed a variety of roles that included the manager of a daredevil motorcycle rider in “Earthquake” (1974). In 1975, he co-starred with Peter O’Toole in the title role of “Man Friday”, a retelling of the “Robinson Crusoe” story in which Friday is not “civilized,” and Crusoe commits suicide. After appearing in the disastrous “Inchon” (1982), film roles in the 80s became sporadic and Roundtree found himself generally playing law enforcement types, like the police commissioner in “Maniac Cop” (1988) and the police captain in both “Party Line” (1988) and “A Time to Die” (1991). After a supporting role in David Fincher’s “Seven” and a turn as an iceman who sparks a racial incident in Tim Reid’s “Once Upon a Time…When We Were Colored” (both 1995), he joined Bernie Casey, Fred Williamson, Pam Grier and other stars of 70s black action films in “Original Gangstas” (1996), in which the older stars–now somewhat paunchy–return for one last go-round. It put some spark into Roundtree’s feature film career, as in 1997, he co-starred in both “Steel” (as the junkyard-owning mentor to the title character) and “George of the Jungle” (as the jungle leader Kwame).
On TV, Roundtree had one of his best opportunities in the breakthrough miniseries “Roots” (ABC, 1977), playing a handsome, well-groomed carriage driver with whom Kizzy (Leslie Uggams) falls in love until she sees that when the master (George Hamilton) calls, Roundtree grovels. Roundtree also starred in the miniseries “AD” (NBC, 1985), before having another shot at a series with a supporting role in “Outlaws” (CBS, 1986-1987) as Ice McAdams. By 1990, Roundtree was out of primetime and in the cast of the short-lived multi-racial NBC daytime drama “Generations”, playing a doctor forced to live in hiding for 15 years for a murder he did not commit. He co-starred in two “Bonanza” revival movies, “The Return” (NBC, 1993), and “Under Attack” (NBC, 1995), and, during the 1995-1996 season, hosted the UPN specials “Cop Files”. Roundtree tried his hand at sitcoms in 1996, playing Dave Chappelle’s father in the short-lived “Buddies” (ABC). In 2001, Roundtree was cast in the comedy-crime feature “Corky Romano” and one year later, he toured with the play “Men Cry In The Dark”.
Richard Roundtree died in 2023 aged 81.
The above TCM overview can also be accessed online here.
Published Oct. 24, 2023Updated Oct. 25, 2023, 12:46 p.m. ET
Richard Roundtree, the actor who redefined African American masculinity in the movies when he played the title role in “Shaft,” one of the first Black action heroes, died on Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81.
His manager, Patrick McMinn, said the cause was pancreatic cancer, which had been diagnosed two months ago.
“Shaft,” which was released in 1971, was among the first of the so-called blaxploitation movies, and it made Mr. Roundtree a star at 29.
The character John Shaft is his own man, a private detective who jaywalks confidently through moving Times Square traffic in a handsome brown leather coat with the collar turned up; sports a robust, dark mustache somewhere between walrus-style and a downturned handlebar; and keeps a pearl-handled revolver in the fridge in his Greenwich Village duplex apartment.
As Mr. Roundtree observed in a 1972 article in The New York Times, he is “a Black man who is for once a winner.”
In addition to catapulting Mr. Roundtree to fame, the moviedrew attention to its theme song, written and performed by Isaac Hayes, which won the 1972 Academy Award for best original song. It described Shaft as “a sex machine to all the chicks,” “a bad mother” and “the cat who won’t cop out when there’s danger all about.” Can you dig it? The director Gordon Parks’s gritty urban cinematography served as punctuation.
A fictional product of his unenlightened pre-feminist era, Shaft was living the Playboy magazine reader’s dream, with beautiful women available to him as willing, even downright grateful, sex partners. And he did not always treat them with respect. Some called him, for better or worse, the Black James Bond.
Mr. Roundtree played the role again in “Shaft’s Big Score!” (1972), which bumped up the chase scenes to include speedboats and helicopters and the sexy women to include exotic dancers and other men’s mistresses. In that movie, Shaft investigated the murder of a numbers runner, using bigger guns and ignoring one crook’s friendly advice to “keep the hell out of Queens.”
In “Shaft in Africa” (1973), filmed largely in Ethiopia, the character posed as an Indigenous man to expose a crime ring that exploited immigrants being smuggled into Europe. The second sequel lost money and led to a CBS series that lasted only seven weeks.
But the films had made their impact. As the film critic Maurice Peterson observed in Essence magazine, “Shaft” was “the first picture to show a Black man who leads a life free from racial torment.”
Richard Arnold Roundtree was born on July 9, 1942 (some sources say 1937), in New Rochelle, N.Y., the son of John and Kathryn (Watkins) Roundtree. His parents were identified in the 1940 census as a butler and a cook in the same household.
Richard played on New Rochelle High School’s undefeated football team and, after graduating in 1961, attended Southern Illinois University on a football scholarship. But he dropped out of college in 1963 after spending a summer as a model with the Ebony Fashion Fair, a traveling presentation sponsored by Ebony magazine, the news and culture publication aimed at Black readers.
Mr. Roundtree moved back to New York, worked a number of jobs and soon began his theater career, joining the Negro Ensemble Company. His first role was in a 1967 production of Howard Sackler’s “The Great White Hope,” starring as a fictionalized version of Jack Johnson, the early 20th century’s first Black heavyweight boxing champion. A Broadway production starring James Earl Jones opened the next year and won three major Tony Awards and the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
After “Shaft,” Mr. Roundtree made varied choices in movie roles. He was in the all-star ensemble cast of the 1974 disaster movie “Earthquake,” appearing alongside Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner, among others. He played the title role in “Man Friday” (1975), a vibrant, generous, ultimately more civilized partner to Peter O’Toole’s 17th-century explorer Robinson Crusoe.
In “Inchon” (1981), which Vincent Canby of The Times described as looking like “the most expensive B movie ever made,” Mr. Roundtree was an Army officer on the staff of Gen. Douglas MacArthur (Laurence Olivier) in Korea. He starred with Clint Eastwood and Burt Reynolds in “City Heat” (1984) and with a giant flying lizard in “Q” (1982).
On television he played Sam Bennett, the raffish carriage driver who courted Kizzie (Leslie Uggams) in the acclaimed mini-series “Roots” (1977). That show was transformational, Mr. Roundtree said in an ABC special celebrating its 25th anniversary: “You got a sense of white Americans saying, ‘Damn, that really happened.’”
Mr. Roundtree’s name remained associated with the 1970s, but he was just as busy during the next four decades.
He was an amoral private detective in a five-episode story arc of “Desperate Housewives” (2004); appeared in 60 episodes of the soap opera “Generations” (1990); and played Booker T. Washington in the 1999 television movie “Having Our Say: The Delany Sisters’ First 100 Years.” He was a big-city district attorney in the film “Seven” (1995) and a strong-willed Mississippi iceman in “Once Upon a Time … When We Were Colored” (1996).
After the year 2000, when he was pushing 60, he made appearances in more than 25 TV series (he was a cast member of or had recurring roles in nine of them — including “Heroes,” “Being Mary Jane” and “Family Reunion”) and was seen in half a dozen television movies and more than 20 feature films.
In 2020, Mr. Roundtree starred as a fishing boat’s gray-bearded captain in “Haunting of the Mary Celeste,” a supernatural maritime movie mystery. In 2022, he was a regular in the second season of “Cherish the Day,” Ava DuVernay’s romantic drama series.
Mr. Roundtree married Mary Jane Grant in 1963. They had two children before divorcing in 1973. In 1980, he married Karen M. Cierna. They had three children and divorced in 1998.
Mr. Roundtree is survived by four daughters, Kelli, Nicole, Tayler and Morgan; a son, John; and at least one grandchild.
The Shaft character, created by Ernest Tidyman in a series of 1970s novels, endured — with Hollywood alterations. Samuel L. Jackson starred as a character with the same name, supposedly the first John Shaft’s nephew, in a 2000 sequel titled “Shaft.”
In 2019, another “Shaft” was released, also starring Mr. Jackson (now said to be the original character’s son), with Jessie T. Usher as his son, J.J. Shaft, an M.I.T.-educated cybersecurity expert. Like the 2000 “Shaft,” it also included Mr. Roundtree in the cast.
The film felt something like a buddy-cops comedy, but the smartest thing it did, Owen Gleiberman of Variety noted in a review, was to take Mr. Roundtree, “bald, with a snowy-white beard,” and “turn him into a character who’s hotter, and cooler, than anyone around him” and whose “spirit is spry, and tougher than leather.
