Paul Winfield
- In full:
- Paul Edward Winfield
- Born:
- May 22, 1939, Dallas, Texas, U.S.
- Died:
- March 7, 2004, Los Angeles, California (aged 64)
- Awards And Honors:
- Emmy Award (1995)
Paul Winfield (born May 22, 1939, Dallas, Texas, U.S.—died March 7, 2004, Los Angeles, California) was an American film and television actor who became widely known for his performance in the film Sounder (1972), which earned him an Oscar nomination.
In an interview with author Dennis Brown that was published in 1999, Winfield said that he had been born in Dallas in 1939 and rejected the claim that he had been born in Los Angeles in 1941. He grew up in Los Angeles, and he attended high school and began acting there. After attending several colleges, he left the University of California at Los Angeles just six credits short of a bachelor’s degree. He then worked as a contract player at Columbia Pictures before taking the role of Diahann Carroll’s boyfriend in the television sitcom Julia (1968–71).
In the film Sounder, Winfield played a sharecropper struggling to take care of his family. His performance resulted in a nomination for the Academy Award for best actor.
Winfield’s other roles included those of baseball player Roy Campanella in the TV film It’s Good to Be Alive (1974), the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., in the TV miniseries King (1978), and Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall in the TV film Strange Justice (1999). Winfield’s performance as a federal judge in a guest appearance on the TV series Picket Fences (1992–96; Winfield appeared in two episodes, 1994) won him an Emmy Award in 1995.