Richard Roundtree: An American Cinematheque Retrospective

ABOUT THE SERIES:

The American Cinematheque is delighted to pay tribute to the late, great Richard Roundtree, an actor whose on-screen presence has rarely been rivaled and whose influence is forever etched into the tapestry of the American film industry. Considered “the first Black action hero,” Roundtree’s immense stardom in the 1970s opened doors for many Black stars to follow. In perhaps his most iconic role as the lead detective in Gordon Parks’ SHAFT (1971), a film often cited as an inventor of the blaxploitation genre, Roundtree’s performance ushered in a decade of genre films that allowed Black actors to star as leads in stories they chose, thus ‘reclaiming power over image.’ Following the film’s massive success, Parks called on Roundtree once more to star as John Shaft in SHAFT’S BIG SCORE.

Richard Roundtree’s name might be most tethered to the SHAFT films, but his stardom is also inseparable from subsequent decades of genre films. Included in our tribute are the offbeat genre gems, Q: THE WINGED SERPENT, in which Roundtree takes on the role of a detective once again- though this time tasked with tracking down a blood-thirsty, winged, dragon-like lizard hiding in the depths of New York City, who periodically surfaces to wreak havoc upon unexpecting New Yorkers, and ONCE UPON A TIME… WHEN WE WERE COLORED, a film given a full 4/4 stars from legendary critic Roger Ebert upon its release, depicting the lives of a Black community in the Rural South amid the gradual end of segregation and the rise of the Civil Rights movement in the mid-20th Century.

One of the true trailblazers of modern American cinema, Richard Roundtree’s career spanned over 50 years on stage and screen. He is one of the few movie stars who left the medium forever different, and better, than how he found it. We remember him here at the American Cinematheque with the classic works named above, and with Mr. Roundtree’s final screen performance in THELMA, where the great actor lends his stardom, one last time, to filmmaker Josh Margolin’s feature debut.