Richard Roundtree who starred as Shaft has passed away at age 81, from cancer.
He is remembered by Samuel Jackson and many others today.
His movies, along with others became known as the Blaxploitation movies, and made a dent at the box office. At the time, you also had other actors such as Jim Kelly, starring in Enter the Dragon with Bruce Lee.
The ripple effect made it into comics with books such as Luke Cage, Hero for Hire. Roy Thomas states the he chipped in with the “Cage” name, and with the chains.
Denys Cowan and Bill Sienkiewicz drew some of the covers for the recent Shaft comic.
Shaft was directed by Gordon Parks who died in 2006. Parks was a multi-talent: poet, photographer, activist, and director. The soundtrack was by Isaac Hayes.
