Paul Winfield

Paul Winfield
File:PaulWinfield.jpg
Born	Paul Edward Winfield (1939-05-22)May 22, 1939 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Cause of death	Heart Attack
Resting place	Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills, California)
Other names	Paul E. Winfield
Alma mater	Manual Arts High School University of Portland Stanford University Los Angeles City College University of California, Los Angeles University of Hawaii University of California, Santa Barbara
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1965–2004
Partner(s)	Charles Gillan, Jr. (1972–2002; Gillan's death)

Paul Edward Winfield (May 22, 1939 – March 7, 2004) was an American television, film and stage actor. He was known for his portrayal of a Louisiana sharecropper who struggles to support his family during the Great Depression in the landmark film Sounder, which earned him an Academy Award nomination. He portrayed Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1978 television miniseries King, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. Winfield was also known to science fiction fans for his roles in The Terminator, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Early years

Winfield was born in Los Angeles, California, to Lois Beatrice Edwards, a union organizer in the garment industry. His stepfather from the age of eight was Clarence Winfield, a city trash collector and construction worker. He graduated from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles. From there, he attended the University of Portland, 1957–59; Stanford University, 1959; Los Angeles City College, 1959–63; University of California, Los Angeles, 1962–64; University of Hawaii, 1965 and the University of California, Santa Barbara, 1970-71.

Career

A life member of The Actors Studio, Winfield carved out a diverse career in film, television, theater and voiceovers by taking ground breaking roles at a time when African-American actors were rarely cast. He first appeared in the 1965 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Runaway Racer," as Mitch, a race car mechanic. His first major feature film role was in the 1969 film, The Lost Man starring Sidney Poitier. Winfield first became well-known to television audiences when he appeared for several years opposite Diahann Carroll on the groundbreaking television series Julia. Filmed during a high point of racial tensions in the United States, the show was unique in featuring an African-American female as the central character. He also starred as Martin Luther King, Jr. in the 1978 miniseries King.

In 1973, Winfield was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor for the 1972 film Sounder, and his co-star in that film, Cicely Tyson, was nominated for Best Actress. Prior to their nominations, and Diana Ross for Lady Sings the Blues the same year with Winfield and Tyson, only three other African Americans – Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones – had ever been nominated for a leading role. He also appeared, in a different role, in the 2003 Disney-produced television remake of Sounder, which was directed by Kevin Hooks, his co-star from the original. Winfield played the part of “Jim the Slave” in Huckleberry Finn (1974) which was a musical based on the novel by Mark Twain. Winfield would recall late in his career that as a young actor he had played one of the two leads in Of Mice and Men in local repertory, made up in whiteface, since a black actor playing it would have been unthinkable. Winfield also starred in the miniseries, including Scarlett, and two based on the works of novelist Alex Haley: Roots: The Next Generations and Queen: The Story of an American Family.

Winfield gained a new segment of fans for his brief but memorable roles in several science fiction television series and movies. He portrayed Starfleet Captain Clark Terrell of the USS Reliant, an unwilling minion of Khan Noonien Singh, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Lieutenant Ed Traxler, a friendly but crusty cop partnered with Lance Henriksen in The Terminator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. In 1996, he was part of the 'name' ensemble cast in Tim Burton's comic homage to 1950s science fiction Mars Attacks!, playing the complacently self-satisfied Lt. General Casey. On the small screen Star Trek franchise, he appeared as an alien captain who communicates in metaphor in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok". He also appeared in the second season Babylon 5 episode "Gropos" as General Richard Franklin, the father of regular character Dr. Stephen Franklin, and on the fairy tale sitcom The Charmings as The Evil Queen's wise-cracking Magic Mirror. He also portrayed the character of Julian Barlow in the television series 227 during its last two seasons.

Winfield also took on roles as gay characters in the films Mike's Murder in 1984 and again in 1998 in the film Relax...It's Just Sex. He found success off-camera due to his unique voice. He provided voices on the cartoons Spider-Man, The Magic School Bus, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, Batman Beyond, Gargoyles, K10C and The Simpsons, on the latter voicing the Don King parody Lucius Sweet. In his voiceover career, he is perhaps best known as the narrator for the A&E true crime series City Confidential, a role he began in 1998 and continued with until his death in 2004. Throughout his career, Winfield frequently managed to perform in the theater. His only Broadway production, Checkmates, in 1988, co-starring Ruby Dee, was also the Broadway debut of Denzel Washington. He also appeared in productions at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, and The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. Winfield was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the King and Roots: The Next Generations. He won an Emmy Award, in 1995, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series, for his appearance as Judge Harold Nance in an episode of the CBS drama Picket Fences.

Personal life and death

Winfield was gay but remained discreet about it in the public eye. His partner of 30 years, architect Charles Gillan, Jr., died on March 5, 2002, of bone cancer. Winfield long battled obesity and diabetes. He died of a heart attack in 2004 at age 64, at Queen of Angels – Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. Winfield and Gillan are interred at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles. He was also the cousin of actor William Marshall who played the lead role in the classic 1972 Blaxploitation horror film Blacula.

Selected filmography

Film
Year	Film	Role	Notes
1967	Who's Minding the Mint?	Garbage man	Uncredited
1970	R. P. M.	Steve Dempsey
1971	Brother John	Henry Birkart
1972	Trouble Man	Chalky Price
1972	Sounder	Nathan Lee Morgan
1973	Gordon's War	Gordon Hudson
1974	Conrack	Mad Billy
1974	Huckleberry Finn	Jim
1975	Hustle	Sergeant Louis Belgrave
1976	High Velocity	Watson
1977	Damnation Alley	Keegan
1977	The Greatest	Lawyer
1977	Green Eyes	Lloyd Dubeck
1977	Twilight's Last Gleaming	Willis Powell
1978	A Hero Ain't Nothin' but a Sandwich	Butler
1981	Carbon Copy	Bob Garvey
1982	White Dog	Keys
1982	Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan	Captain Clark Terrell
1983	On the Run	Harry
1984	The Terminator	Lt. Ed Traxler
1984	Mike's Murder	Philip
1986	Blue City	Luther Reynolds
1987	Death Before Dishonor	Ambassador
1987	Big Shots	Johnnie Red
1988	The Serpent and the Rainbow	Lucien Celine
1990	Presumed Innocent	Judge Larren Lyttle
1993	Cliffhanger	Walter Wright
1993	Dennis the Menace	Chief of Police
1994	The Killing Jar	Judge	Alternative title: Trapped
1995	In the Flesh	William Stone
1996	Original Gangstas	Reverend Dorsey	Alternative title: Hot City
1996	Mars Attacks!	Lt. General Casey
1997	Strategic Command	Rowan
1998	Assignment Berlin	Al Spector
1999	Catfish in Black Bean Sauce	Harold Williams
2000	Knockout	Ron Regent
2001	Vegas, City of Dreams	Edgar Jones
2002	Second to Die	Detective Grady
Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1965	Perry Mason	Mitch	1 episode
1966	The Man from U.N.C.L.E.	EP The Minus x Affair	Military M.P.
1966	Daktari	Roy Kimba	2 episodes
1967	Cowboy in Africa	Kabutu	1 episode
1968	Mission: Impossible	Klaus	1 episode
1969	Mannix	Walter Lucas	1 episode
1970	The Young Rebels	Pompey	1 episode
1973	The Horror at 37,000 Feet	Dr. Enkalla	Television movie
1974	It's Good to Be Alive	Roy Campanella	Television movie
1977	Green Eyes	Lloyd Dubeck	Television movie
1978	King	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.	Miniseries
1979	Backstairs at the White House	Emmett Rogers Sr.	Miniseries
1980	Angel City	Cy	Television movie
1981	The Sophisticated Gents	Richard "Bubbles" Wiggins	Television movie
1982	The Blue and the Gray	Jonathan Henry	Miniseries
1983	For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story		Television movie
1984	The Fall Guy	Bert Perkins	1 episode
1985	Murder, She Wrote	Det. Lieutenant Starkey	1 episode
1986	Under Siege	Andrew Simon	Television movie
1987	Mighty Pawns	Mr. Wright	Television movie
1987–1988	The Charmings	The Magic Mirror	19 episodes
1988–1990	227	Julian C. Barlow	24 episodes
1989	The Women of Brewster Place	Sam Michael	Miniseries
	Wiseguy	Isaac Twine	6 episodes
1990	L.A. Law	Derron Holloway	4 episodes
1991	Family Matters	Jimmy Baines	1 episode
1991	Star Trek: The Next Generation	Captain Dathon	1 episode
1993	Irresistible Force	Commander Toole	Television movie
1994	Scarlett	Big Sam	Miniseries
1994–1998	The Magic School Bus	Mr. Ruhle	Occasional guest voice
1995	Tyson	Don King	Television movie
1995	Babylon 5	General Richard Franklin	1 episode
1995	White Dwarf	Dr. Akada	Television movie
1995–1996	Gargoyles	Voice of Jeffrey Robbins	Season 2, episode 4: "A Lighthouse in the Sea of Time"
1995–2003	Touched by an Angel	Sam	13 episodes
1996	Second Noah	Ramses	1 episode
1998	Walker, Texas Ranger	Pastor Roscoe Jones	1 episode
1999–2004	City Confidential	Narrator	94 episodes
1999	Strange Justice	Thurgood Marshall	Television movie
2002	Crossing Jordan	Dr. Phillip Sanders	1 episode
2003	Sounder	Kindly schoolteacher	Television movie

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Result	Category	Film or series
1973	Academy Award	Nominated	Best Actor in a Leading Role	Sounder
2004	Black Reel Awards	Nominated	Television: Best Supporting Actor	Sounder
1997	Daytime Emmy Award	Nominated	Outstanding Performer in a Children's Special	The Legend of Gator Face
1982	NAACP Image Awards	Won	Best Performance by an Actor in a Dramatic Series or Miniseries or Television Movie	The Sophisticated Gents
1978	Primetime Emmy Award	Nominated	Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Special	King
1979				Roots: The Next Generations (For episode V)
1995		Won	Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series	Picket Fences (For episode "Enemy Lines")
1999	St. Louis International Film Festival	Won	Lifetime Achievement Award	—

External links

• Paul Winfield at the African American Registry (archived by the Wayback Machine)
• Paul Winfield at the Internet Broadway Database
• Paul Winfield at the Internet Movie Database
• Paul Winfield at the TCM Movie Database
• Paul Winfield at AllMovie
• Paul Winfield at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• Paul Winfield and Charles Gillan, Jr. at Find a Grave