Super Fly (1972): 17 Shocking Facts You Totally Missed

Superfly (1972): 17 insane behind-the-scenes facts you never knew Ron O'Neal was a classically trained stage actor with an Obie Award who had been passed over for Shaft because producers said his skin was too light. He became an international star overnight and spent the rest of his career trying to escape the role. Curtis Mayfield's soundtrack made more money than the film itself, released 90 days before the movie opened, and audiences were already singing along in theaters on opening night. The original screenplay was only 45 pages long. Gordon Parks Jr. filled the remaining runtime with long atmospheric sequences of Priest moving through Harlem, which accidentally created the visual template for an entire genre. The Cadillac belonged to a real Harlem pimp named KC who didn't believe any Black Americans were actually making movies until he showed up on set. Charles McGregor, who played Fat Freddy, had spent 28 years in and out of prison for two murders before being cast. For a period that summer, Superfly beat The Godfather at the box office. The NAACP demanded the ending be reshot so Priest would die. The director refused. The word "blaxploitation" was specifically invented as a weapon to attack this film. O'Neal died on the exact same day the DVD was released for the first time. And the bonus: Carl Lee, who played Priest's partner Eddie and delivered the most quoted line in the film, was privately fighting heroin addiction while playing a drug dealer on screen. From a shared needle he contracted AIDS and died in 1986. In the movie Priest walks away a winner. The man playing his best friend didn't. ⏱ Timestamps in the chapters below 👇 Comment which fact blew your mind