On the first day of 2022, tributes to Max Julien started pouring in when TMZ reported that he had died on January 1. The actor and writer, who made his name in so-called “blaxploitation” films like “The Mack,” was 88 at his time of death. “During Julien’s decades-long career, he was known for being bold, honest, and straightforward,” a spokesman for Julien stated. “He would live and speak his own truth both professionally and privately. He was thought of as a rare ‘man among men.'”
His character, the pimp Goldie, became an iconic pop culture touchstone for rappers like Snoop Dogg and Too Short, per The New York Times, who sampled his lines from the 1973 classic. Quentin Tarantino has also been vocal about his love for the film, which influenced his script for “True Romance.” Julien went on to write films like “Cleopatra Jones” and “Thomasine and Bushrod,” which both featured strong women in the lead.
Although Julien worked on many different projects, he was always known for his most iconic character, Goldie. “He’s still the hero to this day,” Julien observed in a 2002 documentary, per NPR. “It’s because of that other thing that he has, that indomitable spirit that he has that, ‘you cannot stop me,’ and ‘you cannot mash me down without me coming back at you.'”
