Isaac Hayes of 'Shaft' fame collapses and dies at home

Isaac Hayes, the baritone-voiced soul crooner who laid the groundwork for disco and whose "Theme From Shaft" won both Academy and Grammy awards, died Sunday afternoon after he collapsed near a treadmill, authorities said.

He was 65.

Hayes was pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis an hour after he was found by a family member, the Shelby County Sheriff's Office said. The cause of death was not immediately known.

"Isaac Hayes embodies everything that's soul music," Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, said Sunday.

Hayes was about to begin work on a new album for Stax, the soul record label he helped build to legendary status. And he had recently finished work on a movie called "Soul Men" in which he played himself, starring Samuel Jackson and Bernie Mac, who died Saturday.

Steve Shular, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office, said authorities received a 911 call after Hayes' wife and young son and his wife's cousin returned home from the grocery store and found him collapsed in a downstairs bedroom. A sheriff's deputy administered CPR until paramedics arrived.

"The treadmill was running, but he was unresponsive lying on the floor," Shular said.

The album "Hot Buttered Soul" made Hayes a star in 1969. Next came "Theme From Shaft," a No. 1 hit in 1971 from the film "Shaft," starring Richard Roundtree.

At the Oscar ceremony in 1972, Hayes performed the song and received a standing ovation. TV Guide later chose it as No. 18 on its list of television's 25 most memorable moments. He won an Academy Award for the song and was nominated for another one for the score. The song and score also won him two Grammys.

Hayes was elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

A self-taught musician, he was hired in 1964 by Stax Records of Memphis as a backup pianist, working as a session musician for Otis Redding and others. He also played saxophone. He began writing songs, establishing a songwriting partnership with David Porter, and in the 1960s they wrote such hits for Sam and Dave as "Hold On, I'm Coming" and "Soul Man."

All this led to his recording contract.

In 1972, he won a Grammy for his album "Black Moses." Hayes also composed film scores for "Tough Guys" and "Truck Turner," besides "Shaft."

And he did the song "Two Cool Guys" on the "Beavis and Butt-Head Do America" movie soundtrack in 1996. Additionally, he was the voice of Nickelodeon's "Nick at Nite" and had radio shows in New York City (1996 to 2002) and then in Memphis.

He was in several movies, including "It Could Happen to You" with Nicolas Cage, "Ninth Street" with Martin Sheen, "Reindeer Games" starring Ben Affleck and the blaxploitation parody "I'm Gonna Git You, Sucka."

In 1997, he became the voice of Chef, the school cook on the animated TV show "South Park." But Hayes angrily quit the show in 2006 after an episode mocked his Scientology religion.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 40 miles north of Memphis.

He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father left when he was 11/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was 6.