Paul Edward Winfield was an American film, TV, and stage actor and voice actor. For Disney, he voiced Jeffrey Robbins in the animated TV series Gargoyles. He also played Jim Watson in Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn and the Teacher in The Wonderful World of Disney remake of Sounder.
Winfield was born in Dallas, Texas and 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.
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. His first major feature film role was in the 1969 film The Lost Man starring Sidney Poitier. It was in 1972 that Winfield received his only Oscar nomination for Best Actor in the film Sounder for his portrayal of Nathan Lee. His other film credits included Trouble Man, Gordon's War, Huckleberry Finn, Hustle, High Velocity, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, White Dog, The Terminator, Big Shots, Cliffhanger, Dennis the Menace (1993), and Mars Attacks!
Winfield first became well-known to television audiences when he appeared for several years opposite Diahann Carroll on the groundbreaking television series Julia. He made more appearances on shows, such as The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Death Valley Day, Mission: Impossible, Murder, She Wrote, The Charmings, 227, L.A. Law, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Babylon 5, Picket Fences, Touched by an Angel, Family Matters, The Magic School Bus, The Simpsons, Walker, Texas Ranger, Batman Beyond, City Confidential, and Crossing Jordan. He also earned acclaim and accolades from his appearances in television films, like It's Good to Be Alive, King, Roots: The Next Generations, The Sophisticated Gents, The Blue and the Gray, For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story, Go Tell It on the Mountain, Scarlett, Tyson, and Strange Justice.
Winfield died of a heart attack on March 7, 2004 at age 64 at Queen of Angels – Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Trivia[]
- Winfield, Sylvester Stallone, Michael Rooker, Ralph Waite, and John Lithgow have all worked on Cliffhanger (1993).
Roles[]
(Gargoyles)