20 Best Richard Roundtree Movies

Legendary actor and Hollywood icon at the age of 81.

Best known for playing the iconic character John Shaft in five movies including the original 'Speed Racer'.

Roundtree's final film is the action-comedy 'best reviews of his long career.

In honor of 'Thelma's release, Moviefone is counting down the 20 best movies of Richard Roundtree's legendary career, including his last.

Let's begin!

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20. 'Corky Romano' (2001)

Corky Romano (Peter Falk), who calls upon Corky to infiltrate the local FBI and retrieve and destroy evidence being used to incriminate Pops for racketeering charges.

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19. 'Steel' (1997)

When a renegade military reject puts new superweapons in dangerous hands, John Henry Irons (Shaquille O'Neal) becomes Steel. Wearing body armor, wielding a fearsome electrohammer and riding a gadget-packed motorcycle, he's ready to wage war... if he can fix the untimely glitches in his untested gear.

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18. 'Man Friday' (1975)

Englishman Robinson Crusoe (Peter O'Toole), stranded alone on an island for years, is overjoyed to find a fellow man, a black islander whom he names Friday (Roundtree). But Crusoe cannot overcome the shackles of his own heritage and upbringing and is incapable of seeing Friday as anything other than a savage who needs Crusoe's brand of cultural and religious enlightenment. Friday attempts to share his own more generous and unashamed culture, but ultimately realizes that Crusoe can never see him as anything but an inferior being. With that awareness, Friday sets out to turn the tables on Crusoe.

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17. 'George of the Jungle' (1997)

Deep in the African jungle, a baby named George (Brendan Fraser), the sole survivor of a plane crash, is raised by gorillas. George grows up to be a buff and lovable klutz who has a rain forest full of animal friends: Tookie, his big-beaked toucan messenger; Ape, a witty talking gorilla; and Shep, a peanut-loving pooch of an elephant. But when poachers mess with George's pals, the King Of Swing swings into action.

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16. 'Escape to Athena' (1979)

During the World War II, the prisoners of a German camp in a Greek island are trying to escape. They not only want their freedom, but also seek an ineffable treasure hidden in a monastery at the summit of the island's mountain.

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15. 'Shaft' (2019)

JJ, aka John Shaft Jr. (Jessie T. Usher), may be a cyber security expert with a degree from MIT, but to uncover the truth behind his best friend’s untimely death, he needs an education only his dad can provide. Absent throughout JJ’s youth, the legendary locked-and-loaded John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) agrees to help his progeny navigate Harlem’s heroin-infested underbelly.

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14. 'What Men Want' (2019)

Magically able to hear what men are thinking, a sports agent (Taraji P. Henson) uses her newfound ability to turn the tables on her overbearing male colleagues.

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13. 'Game for Vultures' (1980)

The South African businessman David Swansey (Richard Harris) is delivering illegal German helicopters to Rhodesia That makes the patriot Gideon Marunga (Roundtree) an angry man.

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12. 'Earthquake' (1974)

Various interconnected people struggle to survive when an earthquake of unimaginable magnitude hits Los Angeles, California.

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11. 'Maniac Cop' (1988)

Innocent people are brutally killed on the streets of New York by a uniformed police officer. A young cop, Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell), finds himself marked as the chief suspect after his wife is murdered.

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10. 'Shaft's Big Score!' (1972)

John Shaft (Roundtree) is back as the lady-loved black detective cop on the search for the murderer of a client.

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9. 'City Heat' (1984)

Set in Kansas City in 1933, Burt Reynolds plays a former cop turned private eye named Mike Murphy. Both Speer and Murphy served on the force together and were once good friends, but are now bitter enemies. When Murphy's partner is slain they team up again to fight the mob.

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8. 'Moving On' (2023)

Two old friends (Lily Tomlin) reconnect at their friend's funeral, and decide to exact revenge on the widower who wronged all three of them decades earlier.

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7. 'Shaft in Africa' (1973)

Detective John Shaft (Roundtree) travels incognito to Ethiopia then to bust a human trafficking ring

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6. 'Speed Racer' (2008)

Speed Racer (Matthew Fox) to bring an end to the corruption and criminal activities.

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5. 'Shaft' (2000)

New York police detective John Shaft (Samuel L. Jackson) arrests Walter Wade Jr. (Christian Bale) for a racially motivated slaying. But the only eyewitness disappears, and Wade jumps bail for Switzerland. Two years later Wade returns to face trial, confident his money and influence will get him acquitted -- especially since he's paid a drug kingpin (Jeffrey Wright) to kill the witness.

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4. 'Brick' (2005)

After a phone call from his ex-girlfriend (Joseph Godron-Levitt) learns that her dead body was found. Vowing to solve her murder himself, he must infiltrate high-school cliques that he previously avoided. His search for the truth brings him before some of the school’s roughest characters.

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3. 'Se7en' (1995)

Two homicide detectives are on a desperate hunt for a serial killer whose crimes are based on the "seven deadly sins" in this dark and haunting film that takes viewers from the tortured remains of one victim to the next. The seasoned Det. Sommerset (Brad Pitt), scoffs at his efforts to unravel the case.

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2. 'Thelma' (2024)

Deceived by a phone scammer pretending to be her grandson, a 90-year-old woman (June Squibb) sets out on a quest to reclaim what was taken from her.

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1. 'Shaft' (1971)

Cool black private eye John Shaft (Roundtree) is hired by a crime lord to find and retrieve his kidnapped daughter.