Star Trek

Winfield in 1981

Noted African-American actor Paul Winfield portrayed two powerful roles in his oportunities in the Star Trek universe: as the tragic Captain Clark Terrell in the bigscreen Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, and then on TNG in the role of metaphor-talking Tamarian captain Dathon in the classic "Darmok" episode.

A native of Los Angeles, Winfield eventually rose from his blue-collar roots and studied at UCLA, taking advantage of the explosion in opportunities for black actors in the late 1960s. First seen as Diahann Carroll's recurring boyfriend in the sitcom Julia from 1968-71, he scored an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor with his sharecropper family man in 1972's Sounder, the best of his many movie roles apart from Terrell. He also played the civil-right leader in the self-titled 1978 TV mini-series King, and won more exposure as the station cop stuck with Arnold Schwarzenegger's first major attack in The Terminator.

Winfield's outstanding performance in King and in Roots: The Next Generation each won Emmy nominations, but he finally took home an Emmy as guest actor for his portrayal of a judge in the series Pickett Fences. He died in 2004 of a heart attack at 64, having increasingly dealt with obesity and diabetes most of his adult life.