Rhodes first television role was in a 1957 episode of Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater that starred Sammy Davis Jr. The role came just one year after Rhodes had received a rude lesson in racial prejudice.

In 1960, Rhodes appeared in five television series: General Electric Theater, hosted by Ronald W. Reagan; The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, Have Gun, Will Travel, starring Richard Boone, The Westerner, starring Brian Keith, and in two episodes of Adventures in Paradise, starring Gardner McKay. In 1961, he was cast in an episode of ABC’s Hawaii-based drama, Follow the Sun. In 1963, he played a patrolman in “Death of a Cop” on CBS’s The Alfred Hitchcock Hour.

In 1965 he published a novel based on his experiences in the Marine Corps at the last black Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Montford Point called The Chosen Few.

His early film roles included appearances in The Nun and the Sergeant (1962), Drums of Africa (1963), Shock Corridor (1963), The Satan Bug (1965), and Mirage (1965). In 1966, he played a supporting role as Captain Davis in the successful suspense-comedy motion picture Blindfold, starring Rock Hudson and Claudia Cardinale. He also played Mr. MacDonald, who aids Caesar in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972), and was the star of the blaxploitation film Detroit 9000 (1973). His later film credits included Mayday at 40,000 Feet! (1976), The Hostage Heart (1977), Coma (1978), and the Burt Reynolds cop thriller Sharky’s Machine (1981).

In a 1968 TV Guide interview, Rhodes described growing up in a rough section of his native Cincinnati: “We lived between the railroad tracks and the river bank. The flood ran us out every winter but we’d always come back, kick out the mud and settle down again until flood time. All the boys had to learn how to hop freights and throw pieces of coal off. All I ever knew was rats, roaches and poverty.”

“I read about a training program a major studio had for grooming people for ‘stardom.’ Being naive about the system, I got on the phone and called the man in charge and asked if he would interview me, and he told me to come around to the studio,” Rhodes told TV Guide in 1968. “I said, ‘By the way, I think I should tell you that I am a Negro.’ He said, ‘Don’t waste your time – we don’t take Negroes in this program.’ I hung up the phone. Almost tore the cradle off the thing.”

From 1966-69, Rhodes was a regular on Daktari as Mike Makula. In 1969 Rhodes starred in the short-lived series The Bold Ones: The Protectors. His most notable television role came in 1977 in the ABC miniseries, Roots, in which he was cast as a leader of Kunta Kinte’s village. He had a pioneering role as an African-American in science fiction television. His portrayal of a Lt. Travers, member of a lunar exploration team in the “Moonstone” episode of The Outer Limits (1964), pre-dated Nichelle Nichols’ portrayal of a black member (Lt. Uhura) of a space exploration crew on Star Trek. In 1985, he appeared as character Mr. Wang in “Magnum P.I.” [Season 6, episode 2; October 3, 1985] in episode titled ‘Old Acquaintance.’

Hari Rhodes died of a heart attack in January 1992, a few months before the premiere of his final project, the made-for-TV feature Murder Without Motive: The Edmund Perry Story.