The best Richard Roundtree movies and TV shows feature some of the classic exploitation films of the 1970s and some great television shows of the 2000s. Roundtree was born in 1942 in New York and started his acting career after dropping out of college in 1963. He worked as a model while also starring in some theater plays before he finally got his break in a 1970 hidden-camera reality movie called What Do You Say to a Naked Lady. However, his next role made him an icon.
In 1971, Richard Roundtree took on the role of private detective John Shaft in the exploitation crime thriller Shaft. This created a new franchise, and Roundtree became the face of the new strong Black Hollywood action hero, creating a new genre in which future action heroes patterned themselves after his iconic role. However, he refused to be pigeonholed only into that role and still worked in everything from war movies and historical epics to family dramas and, in his later years, comedies as well.
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10 Maniac Cop (1988)
Richard Roundtree Played Commissioner Pike
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Maniac Cop RHorrorActionCrime
Maniac Cop is a 1988 action-horror film directed by William Lustig. It follows a series of brutal murders in New York City, sparking fear as the assailant is rumored to be a uniformed police officer. Against this backdrop, a detective and a wrongfully accused cop team up to uncover the truth behind the killings, leading them into a web of corruption and vengeance within the police force.
Director William Lustig Release Date May 13, 1988 Cast Tom Atkins , Bruce Campbell , Laurene Landon , Richard Roundtree , William Smith , Robert Z’Dar , Sheree North , Nina Arvesen Runtime 85 Minutes
Richard Roundtree fit in well with exploitation movies and DTV feature films, and this included the horror movie Maniac Cop. While the film had a limited theatrical release, its B-grade horror aesthetic ensured that it flopped at the theaters before becoming a cult classic when it hit home video. Maniac Cop has a serial killer who is murdering people while dressed like a police officer, making regular folks scared of law enforcement. When it turns out that the killer is possibly superhuman, it takes a wild turn.
Related Every Maniac Cop Movie, Ranked Worst to Best
An honest but brutal cop became a vengeful murderer in the Maniac Cop horror franchise, and here’s how all three movies stack up, worst to best.
The film has a great cast, including Bruce Campbell (Evil Dead) and Tom Atkins (The Fog), and Richard Roundtree also has an important role as well. Roundtree plays Commissioner Pike, a law enforcement official who refuses to believe there is a cop returned from the dead killing people, and as a result, he ends up as one of the victims. It was great seeing Roundtree playing one of the highest-ranking police officials in the movie, even if his lack of faith led to his death.
9 Speed Racer (2008)
Richard Roundtree Played Ben Burns
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Speed Racer (2008) PGFamilyActionAdventureComedy
Speed Racer (2008) is a live-action adaptation of the classic anime series Speed Racer. Directed by the Wachowskis, the film stars Emile Hirsch as Speed, a young race car driver aiming to win races with the help of his family and his high-tech car, the Mach 5. The movie features a vibrant visual style and intense racing sequences, with supporting roles from Christina Ricci, John Goodman, and Susan Sarandon.
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*Availability in US Director Lana Wachowski , Lilly Wachowski Release Date May 7, 2008 Studio(s) Warner Bros. Pictures , Village Roadshow Pictures , Silver Pictures , Anarchos Productions , Velocity Productions , Studio Babelsberg Cast Emile Hirsch , Christina Ricci , John Goodman , Susan Sarandon , Matthew Fox Runtime 135 Minutes
Easily, one of the most underrated movies of Richard Roundtree’s career came in 2008 when Lana and Lilly Wachowski directed the big-screen remake of the cartoon Speed Racer. The Wachowski sisters took the beloved cartoon and turned it into a bright, loud, and vibrant live-action movie that was a box office flop and remained misunderstood by most critics at the time of its release. However, critics and fans re-evaluated the film in later years, and it has since become a cult classic.
Richard Roundtree stars as Ben Burns, a race commentator and former racing champion.
Emile Hirsch stars as Speed Racer, and the supporting cast includes tons of familiar faces, including Christina Ricci. John Goodman, Susan Sarandon, and Matthew Fox. Richard Roundtree stars as Ben Burns, a race commentator and former racing champion. Ben was a Hall of Fame inductee who knew that the biggest win of his career was predetermined, making him someone that Speed Racer knows is not as honorable as he makes it seem. He is only a minor yet memorable character in the film.
8 Q (1982)
Richard Roundtree Played Powell
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Q: The Winged Serpent RCrimeFantasyMystery
Q: The Winged Serpent is a 1982 horror film directed by Larry Cohen. Starring Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, and Richard Roundtree, the film centers around a winged, dragon-like creature terrorizing New York City. As the police investigate ritualistic murders tied to the creature, an ex-con discovers its nest and attempts to use the information for personal gain. Q blends crime drama with supernatural horror against an urban backdrop.
Director Larry Cohen Release Date October 29, 1982 Cast David Carradine , Michael Moriarty , Candy Clark , Richard Roundtree , James Dixon , Malachy McCourt , Fred J. Scollay , Peter Hock Runtime 93 Minutes
Sometimes, the most bizarre-sounding movies become cult classics, and Q: The Winged Serpent is a perfect example. When hearing the synopsis, it seems like this is a Godzilla rip-off, and while it is at times, it also has enough original ideas that it has become a film that sci-fi monster movie fans look at as a true cult classic. The Aztec god Quetzalcoatl (a winged reptilian monster) begins living in the Chrysler Building in Manhattan. It then sets out to eat people, and the police have no idea what is happening.
Richard Roundtree plays one of the police officers, a sergeant named Powell, who is one of the first detectives to start finding the dead bodies without any idea the winged monster really exists. Roundtree is great as the frustrated detective who realizes that there is a real serial killer in the streets and that it isn’t just the mythical winged creature that has the entire city scared. Film critics praised the movie for its performances (especially Michael Moriarty) and the throwback monster action.
7 Heroes (2006-2007)
Richard Roundtree Played Charles Deveaux
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Heroes Drama Sci-Fi
Heroes sees a number of people drawn to each other after a solar eclipse awakens incredible abilities in them. With their destinies seemingly intertwined, these evolved humans use their superpowers to influence the past, present, and future – for better and for worse. When a superpowered killer emerges who is stealing abilities from his victims, they must band together to stop him.
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*Availability in US Cast Hayden Panettiere , Santiago Cabrera , Jack Coleman , Tawny Cypress , Noah Gray-Cabey , Greg Grunberg , Masi Oka , Adrian Pasdar , Milo Ventimiglia , Zachary Quinto Release Date September 25, 2006 Seasons 4 Showrunner Tim Kring
Heroes featured a young cast of actors who learned they had developed superhuman powers and set out to save the world—or at least to save the cheerleader and ensure it didn’t end. With the first season premiering in 2006, the show was a huge success, although later seasons hampered its reputation somewhat when the stories became a little less interesting and the mythology a little too complex. However, it wasn’t just the young cast that carried the series, but some veteran actors as well.
He was someone who wanted to find a way to make the world a better place and confided in his hospice nurse and the show’s main protagonist, Peter Petrelli
Richard Roundtree was one of these veteran actors, playing Charles Deveax, the wealthy father of Simone Deveaux (Tawny Cypress) and one of the founding members of the Company. He was someone who wanted to find a way to make the world a better place and confided in his hospice nurse and the show’s main protagonist, Peter Petrelli (Milo Ventimiglia), at the end of his life. While he died early on, he played an extremely important role in everything that happened in Heroes.
6 Cherish The Day (2022)
Richard Roundtree Played MV St. James
Cherish the Day was the last TV series Richard Roundtree starred in before his death in 2023. Ava DuVernay produced and created this series about a couple’s relationship, with each episode taking place in one single day throughout five years of their lives together. The first season followed Gently (Xosha Roquemore) and Evan (Alano Miller), and the second followed Sunday (Joy Bryant) and Ellis (Henry Simmons). Each season also had a legend of Black cinema as a guest star.
Cherish the Day
was the final television appearance for both Cicely Tyson and Richard Roundtree.
In season one, it was Cicely Tyson as Miss Luma Lee Langston, and in season two, it was Richard Roundtree as Mandeville “MV” St. James. His character in the series is a proud and loving former judge who is the father of Bryant’s Sunday. It is when Sunday returns home to see her aging dad that she reconnects with Ellis. It is a smaller role, but his humor and charisma help Roundtree’s character stand out in a series that received mostly positive reviews and great word of mouth.
5 Roots (1977)
Richard Roundtree Played Sam Bennett
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Roots DramaHistory
Roots is a 1977 historical drama mini-series set during the United States era of slavery. The 9-time Emmy award-winning series is based on the novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley. The series tells the story of Haley’s family, from their ancestor Kunta Kinte all the way through his descendants’ liberation.
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*Availability in US Cast John Amos , Ben Vereen , LeVar Burton , Louis Gossett Jr. , Leslie Uggams , Georg Stanford Brown Release Date January 23, 1977 Seasons 1 Showrunner David L. Wolper
One of the most important miniseries of the 1970s is the 1977 historical saga Roots. The series was based on Alex Haley’s novel that told the story set during and after the era of enslavement in the United States. It aired over eight consecutive nights and was a massive ratings success. It also earned 37 Primetime Emmy nominations and won nine of them. It also won a Peabody and Golden Globe Award and had one of the most-watched finales in television history.
It was easily his most iconic and important television role in a career with plenty of choices.
The cast was great, with LeVar Burton, Louis Gossett Jr., Ed Asner, James Earl Hones, Lorne Green, Burl Ives, Cicely Tyson, Ben Vereen, and Richard Roundtree, among many others. Roundtree only appeared in one episode as Sam Bennett, but he was a very memorable addition to the cast. In the series, he romances Leslie Uggams’ Kizzy in a section set in the early 19th century. It was easily his most iconic and important television role in a career with plenty of choices.
4 Brick (2005)
Richard Roundtree Played VP Trueman
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Brick RDramaMysteryCrime
A high school loner delves into his town’s underworld to uncover the truth behind his ex-girlfriend’s disappearance. As he navigates a web of deceit, drugs, and violence, he confronts a cast of enigmatic characters, leading to a gripping and intense showdown.
Director Rian Johnson Release Date April 14, 2006 Cast Joseph Gordon-Levitt , Lukas Haas , Emilie de Ravin , Meagan Good , Nora Zehetner , Noah Fleiss , Matt O’Leary , Noah Segan Runtime 110 minutes
Years before he directed Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson proved himself with the neo-noir mystery thriller Brick. The movie was unique in that it took place at a modern-day high school, but everyone spoke like they were straight out of a classic pulp mystery novel by Dashiell Hammett. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Brendan, a high schooler whose girlfriend disappears, and he sets out to find out what happened to her. This puts him in the sights of the school’s drug dealers and other shady characters.
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Roundtree is fantastic in the role, delivering the same rapid-fire slang as the younger cast.
While the main cast involves mostly people playing high school students, Richard Roundtree also had a place in the film as Assistant V.P. Trueman. Of course, as the name indicates, this makes him the vice principal of the school, but as with the rest of the characters, he plays more like a crime thriller archetype, this time someone who wants to work with Brendan to get information and things done. Roundtree is fantastic in the role, delivering the same rapid-fire slang as the younger cast.
3 Se7en (1995)
Richard Roundtree Played Martin Talbot
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9/10 Se7en RThrillerDramaCrimeMystery
David Fincher’s crime thriller Se7en follows the seasoned Detective William Somerset after he is assigned a new partner, the young and idealistic David Mills (Brad Pitt). The two find themselves investigating a deranged killer staging murders inspired by each of the seven deadly sins. On the hunt for the twisted John Doe (Kevin Spacey) before he can kill again, the two detectives soon discover that they’re much deeper into the case than they realized.
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*Availability in US Director David Fincher Release Date September 22, 1995 Distributor(s) New Line Cinema Cast Brad Pitt , Gwyneth Paltrow , John C. McGinley , Morgan Freeman , Kevin Spacey Runtime 127 minutes
In 1995, David Fincher directed the crime thriller Se7en. The film stars Brad Pitt as a young police officer named David Mills, who has a beautiful wife (Gwyneth Paltrow) but remains obsessed with his work as a homicide detective. He ends up partnered with Somerset, a veteran officer played by Morgan Freeman who has become disillusioned with his work as a police officer. The two end up forced to work together to solve a murder case involving the Seven Deadly Sins.
The Killer reveals himself late and the ending is one of the most shocking in cinema history. Richard Roundtree stars in the movie as Martin Talbot, the district attorney who wants this case solved, and the suspect brought in before more people end up dead. It is a small role, but Roundtree is on great form here as one of the officials who keep pushing David and Somerset hard to find the killer, which makes things even more devastating when the tragic Se7en ending rolls around.
2 Shaft (1971)
Richard Roundtree Played John Shaft
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Shaft RCrimeActionComedyMystery
Shaft is the 2019 reboot of the 1971 film of the same name. The film centers on JJ Shaft, an MIT graduate that excels at cyber security who recruits his family to investigate the true nature of his best friend’s death. Samuel L. Jackson stars as John Shaft, and Jessie T. Usher as JJ Shaft.
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*Availability in US Director Tim Story Release Date June 14, 2019 Distributor(s) Warner Bros. Pictures , Netflix Cast Alexandra Shipp , Regina Hall , Jessie T. Usher , Ian Casselberry , Method Man , Avan Jogia , Luna Lauren Velez , Isaach De Bankole , Richard Roundtree , Samuel L. Jackson , Matt Lauria Runtime 112 Minutes
Richard Rondtree’s second-ever movie role was the film that made him an iconic star, and it is the role he remained best known for throughout the next five decades of his acting career. In 1971, Roundtree took on the role of John Shaft in the movie Shaft. John is a private detective who quickly gets into trouble when he learns some gangsters are looking for him. This is when he learns that one high-level gangster’s daughter has been kidnapped, and he wants Shaft’s help in finding her.
Shaft
was added to the National Film Registry in 2000 by the Library of Congress.
The Shaft franchise continued on, first with Roundtree maintaining the role and later with Samuel L. Jackson taking on the role and Roundtree returning in smaller roles in the newer films. The film, which was popularized as part of the 1970s blaxploitation genre, was added to the National Film Registry in 2000 by the Library of Congress, and it is a reason that Roundtree enjoyed his long career in movies and TV. It was also his only Golden Globe nomination (Most Promising Newcomer – Male).
1 Thelma (2024)
Richard Roundtree Played Ben
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Thelma (2024) PG-13Comedy
Thelma is a 2024 comedy film written and directed by Josh Margolin. Thelma Post finds herself duped out of money and more when a scam caller pretends to be her grandson. Unwilling to sit back and let herself be a victim, she sets off into the city to find the perpetrator and take back what is hers.
Director Josh Margolin Release Date January 18, 2024 Studio(s) Zurich Avenue , Invention Studios , Bandwagon Cast June Squibb , Fred Hechinger , Richard Roundtree , Parker Posey , Clark Gregg , Malcolm McDowell Runtime 97 Minutes
The last movie that Richard Roundtree ever appeared in was released after his death. The 2024 release is Thelma, and it stars June Squibb as Thelma, a 93-year-old who lives alone in Los Angeles, although she has a grandson who often comes back to make sure she has what she needs. However, while she loves her grandson, she remains someone who finds his help annoying as she wants to care for herself and feels that she has no need for constant assistance.
The film has a high 98% fresh score, and that is largely thanks to the incredible performances by Squibb and Roundtree and their incredible chemistry.
When a scammer pretends to be her grandson and claims he was arrested, Thelma sends money to get him out, only to learn it is a scam. Angry, she sets out to get her money back. Richard Roundtree stars as Ben, a widower who lives in assisted living and the only person Thelma can find to help her. The film has a high 98% fresh score, and that is largely thanks to the incredible performances by Squibb and Roundtree and their incredible chemistry.
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