Richard Roundtree, model and actor who caused a sensation as the private detective John Shaft – obituary

Richard Roundtree, who has died aged 81, was a model-turned-actor who elevated the ability to look good in leather to an art form; known as the first black action hero, Roundtree received a Golden Globe nomination for his depiction of the private detective John Shaft in Gordon Parks’s crime-action blaxploitation thriller Shaft (1971), confidently dodging traffic in Times Square while dressed in an elegant brown leather coat with his collar turned up.