Supply: John Kisch Archive / Getty

The passing of the enduring actor Richard Roundtree, greatest generally known as the Black motion hero Shaft, has elicited quite a few tributes from the most effective of Black Hollywood on-line.

On Tuesday evening (October 24), Richard Roundtree, the beloved actor greatest recognized for enjoying the cultural-defining detective John Shaft in Gordon Parks’ Shaft handed away at his residence in Los Angeles, California after a quick bout with pancreatic most cancers. He was 81 years previous.

Earlier than taking over the function that he would come to be recognized with, Roundtree was a longtime mannequin and an equestrian athlete. After starring as Shaft in two extra motion pictures and a short-lived tv sequence after the blockbuster debut in 1973, the New Rochelle, New York native would go on to have a sturdy profession in movie and TV with memorable roles on Netflix’s Household Reunion and Cherish The Day on OWN.

As information of his passing unfold, many notable figures from Black Hollywood supplied up their tributes and reminiscences of Roundtree on-line. These included those that labored with him equivalent to Samuel L. Jackson, who would take up the mantle of John Shaft in two motion pictures with Roundtree additionally starring. “Richard Roundtree, The Prototype, The Greatest To Ever Do It!! SHAFT, as we all know it’s & will all the time be His Creation!!,” he wrote in a publish on Instagram which featured him, Roundtree, and Jessie T. Usher within the 2019 sequel. He would later add one other tribute on X, previously generally known as Twitter.

Actress and creator Gabrielle Union additionally honored the actor who performed her father on the hit BET sequence Being Mary Jane. “Working with Richard Roundtree was a dream. Getting to hold with him & our Being Mary Jane household was all the time a great ass time with the most effective tales & laughs,” Union wrote in her X publish. “He was ALWAYS the good man within the room with the BEST vibes & ppl would actually run over to come back see him. He was merely the most effective & all of us beloved him.”

We’ve collected a few of the tributes beneath in honor of Richard Roundtree, together with these from the household of the late music legend Isaac Hayes.