Jonas Drew Bundini Brown as Willy Charles Cioffi as Lieutenant Vic Androzzi Christopher St. John as Ben Buford Gwenn Mitchell as Ellie Moore Lawrence Pressman as Tom Hannon Victor Arnold as Charlie Tony King as Davies Sherri Brewer as Marcy Jonas Rex Robbins as Rollie Camille Yarbrough as Dina Greene Margaret Warncke as Linda Joseph Leon as Byron Leibowitz Arnold Johnson as Cul Antonio Fargas as "Bunky" Background Shaft was adapted from Ernest Tidyman's novels by Tidyman and screenwriter John D. F. Black. Joel Freeman and executive producers Stirling Silliphant and Roger Lewis produced the film. The screen detective genre in the late 1960s had been dominated by the big movies, big stars. Paul Newman had established his Harper in 1966, (the character reprised 1975, in The Drowning Pool). Soon following, Frank Sinatra's Tony Rome (1967), The Detective (1968), Lady in Cement (1968) further set the quality. Industry knowledge suggested that the first of the Clint Eastwood Dirty Harry productions was also slated for a 1971 release. Gordon Parks's directorial debut of a major entertainment production was set on a course for an appreciation of comparisons. The instinctive cultural polymath knew where a coup of casting was his by necessity to play. Although black in the source novel, Tidyman's original draft screenplay had Shaft as white. However, [Gordon] Parks cast African American actor Richard Roundtree as the eponymous hero. The entire dynamic of the film, its later success, and the future of blaxploitation films were all greatly impacted by Parks' decision. This film was created less to impact black consciousness and more to simply to show a "'fun film,' which people could attend on Saturday night and see a black guy winning." Nevertheless, Parks said in the documentary about his work, Half Past Autumn (2000), that he had hoped the film would inspire young African Americans by presenting them with "a hero they hadn't had before." Shaft was intentionally created to "appeal to a black urban audience, along with contiguous white youths." After production, in an effort to entice a large black audience to see the film, MGM hired UniWorld, a black advertising firm, who "popularized Shaft by using the rhetoric of black power." Although this film was notable for its crossover success with both white and black audiences, UniWorld focused largely on attracting members of the African-American community. "For example, Variety reported UniWorld's advertisement description of the protagonist John