*Movie siren Vonetta McGee, star of such blaxploitation era films as “Shaft in Africa” and “Blacula,” has died. She was 65.
The actress, born Lawrence Vonetta McGee in San Francisco, suffered a cardiac arrest on July 9 and died in the hospital last Friday, according to the Los Angeles Times.
McGee also starred in 1975’s “The Eiger Sanction” alongside Clint Eastwood, playing the role of Jemima Brown. But it was her role two years earlier opposite Richard Roundtree in “Shaft in Africa” that made her a household name.
In 1987, McGee married the actor Carl Lumbly; they have one child.
According to the Los Angeles Times, McGee was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at the age of 17, although her death was not related to the disease.
