Star in '70s black film renaissance dies at 62

By Susan King
Los Angeles Times

	Paul Winfield
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LOS ANGELES — Paul Winfield, the award-winning actor who came to fame during the renaissance of black cinema in the 1970s in films such as "Sounder" and "A Hero Ain't Nothing But a Sandwich," died of a heart attack Sunday night. He was 62.

Mr. Winfield had been in ill health, suffering from diabetes, said his agent, Michael Livingston.

The tall, imposing actor was the third African American to receive an Academy Award nomination for best actor when he was honored for his performance as Nathan Lee Morgan, the loving sharecropper father in the 1972 classic "Sounder." He lost the Oscar to Marlon Brando in "The Godfather."

Cast mainly in character roles, Mr. Winfield consistently worked in film, television and theater, receiving an Emmy in 1995 for his role as a federal judge on "Picket Fences." He had previously received Emmy nominations for his lauded performance as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1978 miniseries "King" and another in 1979 for "Roots: the Next Generation."

Paul Edward Winfield was born in Los Angeles on May 22, 1941. His mother, Lois Beatrice, was a union organizer in the garment industry; his stepfather, Clarence Winfield, was a construction worker.

Mr. Winfield once said that he was so precocious he was taken to see a psychiatrist when he was 3. "I wasn't a particularly disturbed child, but I wasn't a normal one either," he said.

He also was gifted in music, playing both violin and cello.

He won a music scholarship to Yale University, but he accepted a scholarship in drama to the University of Oregon instead because, he said, he thought "college was scary enough without going to a rich one." He later attended several West Coast universities and left UCLA six credits short of his degree in 1964.

Guest-starring roles soon followed on TV's "Room 222" and "Julia," in which he played Diahann Carroll's boyfriend. He considered his role in "Julia" the only meaningful acting he had done until "Sounder."
 
"Since I am not particularly pretty and I can't sing or dance, I started off in television with a lot of bit parts either as a black activist or some type of psychopathic heavy," he said.

In the 1980s, he appeared in films such as "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" and starred in stage plays.

The 1990s began on a high note with a juicy role as a judge in the 1990 hit "Presumed Innocent." He appeared on stage in Los Angeles opposite Carroll in "Love Letters" and won the Emmy for his "Picket Fences" role.

Mr. Winfield, who never married, is survived by a sister, Patricia Wilson of Las Vegas.

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