Vonetta McGee, Blaxploitation Star, Dead at 65

Here’s some sad new for fans of 70’s Blaxpolitation.

From the Los Angeles Times:

” Vonetta McGee, an actress whose big-screen heyday during the blaxploitation era of the 1970s    included  leading roles in “Blacula” and “Shaft in Africa,” has died. She was 65. McGee died Friday at a hospital in Berkeley after experiencing cardiac arrest and being on life support for two days, said family spokeswoman Kelley Nayo. McGee was described as “one of the busiest and most beautiful black actresses” by Times movie reviewer Kevin Thomas in 1972, the year she appeared opposite Fred Williamson in the black action  movie “Hammer,” and had starring roles in the crime-drama “Melinda” and the horror film “Blacula.”She went on to appear with Richard Roundtree  in “Shaft in Africa” (1973), and co-starred with Max Julien in “Thomasine & Bushrod” (1974).”

Ms McGee did not like the term “Blaxpolitation” but starred in many of those films including, besides the ones mentioned above, DETROIT 9000 (1973) and BROTHERS (1977). She appeared opposite Clint Eastwood in THE EIGER SANCTION (1974), in Sergio Corbucci’s startling spaghetti western THE GREAT SILENCE (1971), and had a role in the 1984 cult item REPO MAN. Ms McGee was a fine actress and by all accounts, a classy lady.

Source: THE LOS ANGELES TIMES