U.S. musician, actor and singer Isaac Hayes performs in the Wattstax Revue at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Montreux, in this July 2, 2005 file photo. Oscar-winning soul singer Hayes died in Memphis on August 10, 2008, aged 65, his friend and former manager Onzie Horne said.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)
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    BEIJING, Aug. 11 (Xinhuanet) -- Isaac Hayes, winner of both Academy and Grammy awards for the theme song to the movie Shaft, was found unconscious near a treadmill Sunday and pronounced dead at Baptist East Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., an hour later. He was 65.

Hayes, a baritone soul crooner, was a forerunner for disco. His music, which came to be known as urban-contemporary, paved the way for disco as well as romantic crooners like Barry White.

Isaac Hayes embodies everything thats soul music, Collin Stanback, an A&R executive at Stax, said. When you think of soul music you think of Isaac Hayes ?? the expression ... the sound and the creativity that goes along with it.    

Hayes was 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, Im Coming and Soul Man.

Hayes was born in 1942 in a tin shack in Covington, Tenn., about 64 km north of Memphis. He was raised by his maternal grandparents after his mother died and his father took off when he was 1 1/2. The family moved to Memphis when he was six.

(Agencies)