Los Angeles, California - Actor Richard Roundtree, heralded as "the first Black action hero" for his starring role in the iconic 1971 hit movie Shaft, died Tuesday at 81.

Deadline said that the star, known for opening doors for other Black artists in the industry, died with his family at his bedside "after a brief battle with pancreatic cancer."

Roundtree played the private eye John Shaft in the original film, which sparked a series of sequels and a TV spinoff.

Five decades later, Roundtree was still acting, appearing in the TV drama Cherish the Day and the comedy Moving On just last year.

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"Richard's work and career served as a turning point for African American leading men in film," his manager Patrick McMinn said in a statement to Variety.

"The impact he had on the industry cannot be overstated."

Roundtree's major debut, Shaft, was hailed as a founding classic in the Blaxploitation genre of the 1970s. Though criticized for peddling harmful stereotypes, the films were critical to pushing Hollywood to finally cast Black Americans in starring roles.

"I used to look at it as a double-edged sword. But I've had so many people from all over the country – and all over the world actually – come up and say what that film meant to them back in '71," Roundtree told NPR in 2019.

"The other side of it is I got typecast for quite some time, and then I've gone out of my way to establish a different side of my acting," he said.

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He was largely successful in that, with "his trailblazing career (changing) the face of entertainment around the globe," his agency told Deadline.

Tributes poured in from Hollywood stars, including Samuel L. Jackson, who wrote: "Blessed to have an idol live up to who I expected him to be!"