Paul Edward Winfield (May 22, 1939 – March 7, 2004) was an American 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 (1972), which earned him an Academy Award for Best Actor nomination, making him the first openly gay nominee. Winfield portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1978 television miniseries King, for which he was nominated for an Emmy Award. Winfield was also known for his roles in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, The Terminator, L.A. Law,, the Magic Mirror in The Charmings, and Julian c. Barlow in the final season of 227. Winfield received four Emmy nominations overall, winning in 1995 for his 1994 guest role in Picket Fences.

Early years

Winfield was the son of Lois Beatrice Edwards, a single mother who was a union organizer in the garment industry. Although published obituaries stated he was born on May 22, 1941 in Los Angeles, some sources indicate that Winfield was born on May 22, 1939 in Dallas, Texas. His stepfather from the age of eight was Clarence Winfield, a city trash collector and construction worker. Winfield 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 Hawaiʻi, 1965 and the University of California, Santa Barbara, 1970–71, but did not earn a degree from any of them.

Career

A lifetime member of The Actors Studio, Winfield carved out a diverse career in film, television, theater, and voiceovers by taking groundbreaking roles at a time when black actors were rarely even cast. He first appeared in the 1965 Perry Mason episode "The Case of the Runaway Racer" as Mitch, a race car mechanic. Winfield's first major feature film role was in the 1969 film The Lost Man starring Sidney Poitier. He became well known to TV audiences after appearing in several seasons of the groundbreaking television series Julia opposite Diahann Carroll. The show, filmed during a high point of racial tension in the U.S., was unique in featuring a black female as the central character. Winfield 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; his co-star, Cicely Tyson, was nominated for Best Actress. Prior to their nominations and Diana Ross's for Lady Sings the Blues the same year, only three other black Americans – Dorothy Dandridge, Sidney Poitier and James Earl Jones – had ever been nominated for a leading role. Winfield also appeared in a different role in the 2003 Disney-produced TV remake of Sounder directed by Kevin Hooks, his co-star from the original. Winfield played "Jim the Slave" in Huckleberry Finn (1974), a musical based on the Mark Twain novel. He would recall later in his career, that as a young actor, he had played one of the leads in a local repertory production of Of Mice and Men in whiteface. At the time, a black actor playing the role would have been unthinkable. Winfield also starred in several 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 films. Winfield portrayed Starfleet starship Captain Terrell, an unwilling minion of the villain Khan, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and Lieutenant Ed Traxler, a friendly but crusty cop partnered with Lance Henriksen in The Terminator. In 1996, he was in 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, Winfield appeared in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Darmok" as Dathon, an alien captain who communicates in allegories. He 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 wisecracking Magic Mirror. Winfield guest-starred as Deacon Malcolm Fisk in "The Sing-Off" episode of 227 and later joined the main cast in the final season as the snide and wealthy landlord Julian c. Barlow who stated that the "c" in his middle name was lower-cased by his mother who wanted to make it sound humble.

Winfield also took on roles as homosexual characters in the films Mike's Murder in 1984, and the 1998 film Relax...It's Just Sex. He found success off-camera due to his unique voice. Winfield provided voices for Spider-Man as Black Marvel, The Magic School Bus, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child, Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, K10C, and The Simpsons as the Don King parody Lucius Sweet. In his voiceover career, Winfield is perhaps best known as narrator of the A&E true crime series City Confidential from 1998 until his death in 2004.

Throughout his career, Winfield frequently managed to perform in the theater. Checkmates (1988), his only Broadway production, co-starred Ruby Dee and was also the Broadway debut of Denzel Washington. Winfield appeared in productions at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, D.C. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for King and Roots: The Next Generations. In 1995, Winfield won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series for his appearance as Judge Harold Nance in the CBS drama Picket Fences.

Personal life and death

Winfield was gay, but remained discreet about it in the public eye. Prior to coming out with his sexuality, Winfield lived with his Sounder co-star Cicely Tyson, for about 18 months in the early 1970s. She offered him a place to stay after he revealed that he was gay on set. Due to their living together, it was speculated that they were in a relationship. They never corrected the misconception. His partner of 30 years, architect Charles Gillan Jr., died of bone cancer on March 5, 2002.

Winfield long battled obesity and diabetes. On March 7, 2004, he died of a heart attack at Queen of Angels – Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles. Winfield and Gillan are interred together at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

Notes

References

External links