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Photo: CBS Television · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons Photo shows actor Richard Roundtree
John Shaft
Richard Roundtree's private detective owns Harlem, the leather coat, and a full chevron mustache that defined 1970s cool.
- Actor
- Richard Roundtree
- Film
- Shaft
- Year
- 1971
- Medium
- Movie
- Style
- Chevron
- Fan Votes
- 0 legendary · 0 meh
Why John Shaft's Mustache Matters
Before the leather trench coat, before the Isaac Hayes theme, there is the mustache. Richard Roundtree's John Shaft wears a full, dark chevron that frames a face of absolute self-assurance, and it became one of the most influential looks of the decade.
Shaft (1971), directed by Gordon Parks, was a landmark film, and Roundtree's style — the turtlenecks, the coat, the lip — was copied everywhere. The mustache is clean and confident, neither oversized nor fussy, and it perfectly matches a character the theme song describes as a complicated man.
Samuel L. Jackson's 2000 sequel and Jessie T. Usher's 2019 film kept the character alive, but the original mustache remains the template.
- Isaac Hayes's "Theme from Shaft" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song in 1972.
- Richard Roundtree (1942–2023) reprised the role in sequels and in the 2000 and 2019 films.
- Director Gordon Parks was also a celebrated photographer for *Life* magazine.
How to Grow the Chevron
The Tom Selleck. Thick, wide, and confident. The default setting for a man who means business.
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