He’s Big, Beautiful, Black--and It’s His Birthday

The first half of that headline has been borrowed from the back-jacket copy on my 1972 Bantam paperback edition of Shaft’s Big Score, by Ernest Tidyman. (The original line reads, “He’s big, beautiful, black--and he’s back.”) What I’ve added to it is in commemoration of this day, which marks the 69th birthday of actor Richard Roundtree, who played Tidyman’s New York City private eye, John Shaft, in three 1970s films and a short-lived TV series. It’s good to know that the man who provided the face for “the black Bogart,” as Shaft was once known, is still around and kicking (if no longer kicking ass).