Richard Roundtree
Richard Roundtree AKA Shaft
(b. July 9th 1942-)
Richard Roundtree is a bad mother -shut your mouth-I’m just talking bout Richard Roundtree -we can dig it! Although most people know Roundtree as John “MF’in” Shaft, in Shaft, Shaft’s Big Score, Shaft in Africa, or Uncle Shaft in the 2000 version of Shaft, he has had a long and expansive career. And on top of being in over 80 films, he has scored with countless women. At the peak of his career, Roundtree scarcely had to look at a woman to make her melt. Look at the way he shoots a gun!
The persona of John Shaft was based on Roundtree’s real life as a total hard-ass. No one was tougher than RR. He invented the idea of 1970s toughness. He gave private lessons to the less fortunate (i.e. less tough) on how to live better lives (i.e. tougher lives). Nothing can stop Richard Roundtree from winning at life. He wasn’t even held back when he was diagnosed with the male form of breast cancer in 1993. It has killed lesser men such as Rod Roddy from The Price is Right.
But look at Richard Roundtree:
Does this look like a man who would be even slowed down by breast cancer? I don’t think so. A double mastectomy and some chemo treatment later he was fine. He continues to act both in film and on T.V.
Some notable T.V. appearances include:
* MacGyver
* The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air
* Roc
* Hangin’ With Mr. Cooper
* Renegade
* Touched by an Angel
* Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman
* Desperate Housewives
Richard, you showed us that it takes a special man to love both white and black woman equally. It isn’t the color of our skin that matters, because baby, we are all pink on the inside.
Remember this scene from Shaft?
Tom: Hey, where the hell are you going, Shaft?
Shaft: To get laid, where the hell you going?
Where the hell are you going indeed. Everyone wants to get laid like John Shaft and everyone secretly wishes they were Richard Roundtree. Women wanted him and men wanted to be like him. He was and is the toughest mother we know. For all of this and more, you Richard Roundtree, are our daily hero.