Richard Roundtree, star of the original Shaft movies, had breast cancer.
Roundtree, it turns out, was diagnosed nearly 13 years ago with breast cancer. His life was saved by a mastectomy and chemotherapy; now he lectures around the country about early detection.
"There is help out there if we take advantage of it," he told our colleague Yolanda Woodlee, noting that most men don't. "Men take better care of their cars than their bodies. . . . If I had not been such a hypochondriac and gone straight to the doctor when I noticed a lump in my breast, I would not be here talking to you today."