Paul Winfield Movies

In this actioner, a battle-hardened Marine sergeant finds himself faced with single-handedly rescuing his former colonel from Middle Eastern terrorist abductors. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Horror maven Wes Craven attempted a slight change of pace from his usual slasher movie milieu with this chiller loosely based on a true story. Bill Pullman stars as Dennis Alan, a Harvard researcher sent to Haiti by a pharmaceutical company to investigate the zombie legend and any possible connection it might have to a rumored drug that could be used as a new breed of powerful anaesthetic. Once on the Caribbean isle, Alan is aided by a good voodoo priest or "houngan" (Paul Winfield) and his daughter (Cathy Tyson), who runs a local clinic. Alan's search also pits him against an evil houngan, Dargent Peytraud (Zakes Mokae). Peytraud also controls the Tonton Macoute (the Haitian secret police), who are involved with soon-to-be-deposed dictator "Baby Doc" Duvalier. The Serpent and the Rainbow was based on the book of the same name by Wade Davis, an ethnobotanist whose real-life hunt for the zombie drug was credited with cracking the medical mystery behind the myth. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Dorian Harewood stars as real-life Texas engineer Lenell Geter, who in 1982 was accused of armed robbery. Beyond the fact that both he and the suspect are African-American, Geter looks nothing at all like the actual robber; still, he is identified as the culprit in a police lineup. Despite the testimony of six character witnesses, all of whom were with Geter at the time of the robbery, he is sentenced to life imprisonment. He very likely would have remained in prison had not the CBS investigative series 60 Minutes told Geter's story to millions of viewers. The authorities refuse to acknowledge the possibility that they have erred, and attempt to block a re-opening of the case. Even Geter's court-appointed attorney (Dabney Coleman) is unsympathetic to his client's plight. But Geter's somewhat ingenuous faith in the American justice system is eventually rewarded, and he is finally set free. Guilty of Innocence was originally telecast February 3, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When prodigal son Billy Turner (Judd Nelson) returns to his Florida home town, he's caught in a brawl and thrown in jail. He tells the guards to call his father, the mayor, who will have him released; however, he soon discovers his father has been killed. After Turner finally gets out of jail, he starts to hunt down his father's murderer, with the eventual help of Annie Rayford (Ally Sheedy) and her brother Joey (David Caruso). Their nemesis is the nasty crime boss Perry Kerch (Scott Wilson) and his henchmen, though the slow-witted police chief (Paul Winfield) is not much help, either. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Jerry Orbach makes his first series appearance as gruff but golden-hearted Boston private detective Harry McGraw. While researching a 25-year-old murder for her latest book, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) engages the services of McGraw's partner Archie Miles (Maltese Falcon fans take note!) When Miles is murdered, McGraw joins forces with Jessica to find out if his partner's probe of the "old" case was the cause of his death--or could it have been one of the other two cases which Miles was also digging into? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this poignant adaptation of James Baldwin's novel about a few generations in the life of an Afro-American family, a young boy's efforts to gain some approval from his Bible-thumping, disciplinarian father takes center stage, and the family's background is told in a series of flashbacks. The story begins in 1935 with young Southerner Gabriel Grimes (Paul Winfield) as he runs away from home and takes on the identity of a Baptist lay preacher. Childless by his timid first wife, Gabriel has an illegitimate son by Esther (Alfre Woodard), an irresistible temptress. Unfortunately, the son comes to no good, forcing an embittered Gabriel to move to Harlem and start over with another wife, and eventually, two more sons. But the man has by this time gone over the edge and is filled with a rage against the vicissitudes of his life (he cannot get ahead in the church and is forced to work as a day laborer just to keep food on the table). He takes out his anger on his family and is so single-mindedly fanatical about religion that he forces his sons to join regular home Bible study to the exclusion of all other activities -- especially those promoted by the white-dominated society outside of Harlem. When his timid but intelligent son John (James Bond III) wins a writing honor, Gabriel makes him give it back -- and in general, his fanaticism and anger turn life into intermittent misery for the talented and sensitive son who loves writing. John's desire to please his father is all the more touching when the impossibility of pleasing him is so obvious. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Howard E. Rollins stars as martyred civil-rights spokesman Medgar Evers, while Irene Cara co-stars as his wife (and future NAACP leader) Myrlie. The film concentrates on the last years of Evers, an ex-insurance agent turned activist. His home in Jackson, Mississippi is besieged by bigots and he and his family are threatened with dire consequences, but Evers continues to work towards the goal of integrating his racially-polarized state. In June of 1963, the 37-year-old Evers is shot to death in front of his home. This 90 minute drama was adapted from a book co-authored by Mrs. Evers, Ossie Davis and J. Kenneth Rotcop. For Us, the Living was first telecast March 22, 1983 on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location in New York, Dreams Don't Die is a story of survival. Ike Eisenmann stars as Danny, a young "graffiti artist" whose talents do not go unnoticed by a sensitive cop (Paul Winfield). With no father of his own, Danny latches onto the cop. This in turn leads to an intensive effort by Danny to track down a local drug lord. In his last film role, James Broderick is uncharacteristically cast as the villain. Made for television, Dreams Don't Die premiered May 21, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A little-seen film, suppressed by Paramount studio executives and never released theatrically in the U.S., this drama is a powerful saga about racism. Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) hits a handsome white dog with her car one night and then nurses it back to health. One day, the theretofore mild-mannered dog saves her life by viciously attacking and killing a rapist who breaks into her home. Lucy discovers that the dog has been trained to attack black skin. She consults an animal trainer, Carruthers (Burl Ives), who urges her to have the dog exterminated. But a maverick black trainer, Keys (Paul Winfield), who has tried before to break the training of such dogs but never succeeded, steps in. Director Sam Fuller had made other controversial films, but this one frightened studio executives, who deep-sixed it. It was hailed by critics when it was released in Europe. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

George Segal plays rich and surly California executive Walter Whitney, who learns out-of-the-blue that he has a 17-year-old black son, in Michael Schultz's lightweight Carbon Copy. When his son Roger Porter (Denzel Washington) arrives, Walter tries to pass him off to his neighbors in the restricted all-white suburb as a sociological experiment. But when he eventually confesses his parenthood to his wife Vivian (Susan Saint James), his world is turned upside down. In a flash, all the trophies of upper-class white respectability are removed -- he loses his job, his credit cards are revoked, and Vivian throws him out of the house. Without the white man's trappings, he is forced to accept the help of downtrodden minorities. When he is compelled to manual labor, Walter comes to understand the troubles his son goes through. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The three-part TV miniseries The Sophisticated Gents covers 25 years in the lives of a group of close friends. Nine African-American members of a sports club gather for a quarter-century reunion. As they reminisce over the high and low points of their lives, some of the members await the arrival of the group's troublemaker with less than enthusiasm. The story comes to an out-of-left-field conclusion involving an escaped killer (Melvin van Peebles) and a pursuing cop. The nine "gents" of the title are played by Ron O'Neal, Thalmus Rasulala, Bernie Casey, Dick Anthony Williams, Raymond St. Jacques, Robert Hooks, Rosey Grier, Paul Winfield...and the aforementioned Melvin van Peebles. Based on John A. Williams' novel The Junior Bachelor Society, the 4-hour The Sophisticated Gents was originally telecast September 29, October 1 and October 2, 1981; for reasons unknown, its debut had been postponed for nearly two years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Angel City plays like a Grapes of Wrath updated to the 1980s. Ralph Waite plays a West Virginia farmer who, faced with the prospect of starving to death on his unproductive land, packs up his family and moves to the so-called Promised Land of Florida. There he goes to work on what is euphemistically called a collective farm. But soon he finds himself surrounded in squalor and misery, working back-breaking hours for slave-labor wages. Paul Winfield, Jennifer Warren and Mitchell Ryan co-star in this made for TV movie, which debuted November 12, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide