Last week, three Jeopardy! contestants were left feeling a bit shafted after missing what would’ve been an easy answer.
In the Wednesday, March 26 episode of Jeopardy!, only one prompt was missed by all three players. Confoundingly, it was simply a matter of identifying one of the most famous on-screen detectives.
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With the category “Be My TV Show Guest,” host Ken Jennings showed a picture of a man and said, “This star of the O.G. Shaft guest-starred as two different characters on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.“
All three contestants froze, and the buzzer rang out as none of them could identify Richard Roundtree.
Roundtree, a legendary, award-winning actor, famously played a private detective in the 1971 megahit Shaft, its four sequels, and the 1973 television series of the same name. He is widely considered the first Black action star, and starred in plenty of other major films and television series of every genre with his wide range of acting abilities—like Roots, Beverly Hills 90210, Heroes, Se7en, Brick, Desperate Housewives, and plenty more.
Jeopardy! fans online, of course, were raking the three contestants over the coals for not knowing such a well-known pop culture icon.
“Isn’t it surprising how even on Jeopardy, pop culture questions can leave contestants stumped? The late Shaft actor, Richard Roundtree, seemed to be a mystery to them. Fascinating how some cultural icons can fade from collective memory,” one user on Twitter/X wrote.
“They didn’t know Richard Roundtree?!,” one user wrote. “Richard Roundtree! I think we’re all screaming! #Jeopardy,” another wrote.
Roundtree died of pancreatic cancer in late 2023. His last on-screen role was in the 2024 comedy-drama Thelma.
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