Roundtree, who turned 81, died on Tuesday after suffering from cancer, his manager Patrick McMinn told the newspaper.
“Richard’s work and career was a turning point for African-American leading actors in film. The impact he had on the industry cannot be overstated,” manager McMinn said in a statement.
1971’s “Shaft” is cited as a film that set the tone for a prolific decade of Blaxploitation filmmaking. Roundtree also starred in two sequels to the first film in the 1970s and also in a short-lived television series about the detective.
Roundtree also had a role in 1977 in the slave drama “Roots”, based on a book by Alex Haley, which was shown on television in Sweden in 1980 with the title “Roots”.