Richard Roundtree was an American actor, best known for playing the title role in the movie Shaft, and who plays the part of Mr. Shaw on Desperate Housewives.
Richard Roundtree was a leading man in many "blaxploitation" movies in the 1970s. He is best known for his role as John Shaft in Shaft (1971), and starred in its two sequels as well. As the 1970s and 1980s progressed he starred more in low-budget movies. He was in a few occasional high-profile, if a tad offbeat, films. Among his more notable work in that period were Escape to Athena (1979), Cidade Ardente (1984) and the socially conscious but badly received Game for Vultures (1979). Roundtree has been active in movies these days. He became popular again in the 1990s with his role in Seven - Os Sete Crimes Capitais (1995), and was well received for reprising his role as the classic hero, and Samuel L. Jackson's uncle, in the 2000 remake of the film that made him a star, Shaft (2000).