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Gifted at playing the violin and cello, he was given a scholarship to Yale University on these merits but turned down the scholarship. He attended the University of Portland; Stanford University; Los Angeles City College; the University of California, Los Angeles; the University of Hawai'i; and the University of California, Santa Barbara, but did not receive a degree from any of them.

Winfield did not play an active role in the gay rights movement. His good friend actor-producer Jack Larson (Jimmy Olsen in Adventures of Superman (1952)) described him as "openly gay in his life if not in the media". Like many actors of his generation he concealed his homosexuality for fear of losing employment. Larson stated that Winfield had been distraught in his final years on account of his longtime partner's death in 2002.

Cousin of actor William Marshall, also known as Blacula (1972). Marshall and Winfield have appeared on Star Trek (Marshall as Dr. Richard Daystrom in The Ultimate Computer (1968) and Winfield as Captain Clark Terrell in Star Trek II - L'ira di Khan (1982) (also as Captain Dathon in Darmok (1991))).

His companion of 30 years, set designer and architect Charles Gillan Jr., passed away from a rare bone disease on March 5, 2002. Following his sudden death, he was interred with Gillan at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Hollywood Hills) in Los Angeles, California.

His mother, Lois Beatrice Edwards, was a union organizer in the garment industry; his stepfather, Clarence Winfield, was a construction worker.

Bred and showed black pug dogs for several decades at his home in Los Angeles, California until his diabetes forced him to stop. While at a dog show in Denver, Colorado in the late 1990s, Winfield fell into a diabetic coma and required three weeks in a hospital.

There were originally more scenes of his character, Lt. Ted Traxler, in Terminator (1984), that were cut to keep the film's pace moving but are now available on the special edition DVD from MGM. There were scenes that showed him and his partner-in-crime, played by Lance Henriksen, taking part in the chase sequence that ensues after the Tech Noir shoot out. The last two scenes took place in the police station that revealed that Traxler believed Kyle Reese, played by Michael Biehn, to be telling the truth--one taking place after the questioning of Reese and one where Reese and Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, are about to escape from the police station during the Terminator's, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, siege where Traxler gave Reese his gun and car keys.

Was first impacted by the film Odio (1949), which starred African-American actor James Edwards in a leading role, not a typical supporting role as a servant.

In August 2000, Winfield appeared with John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra at Tanglewood on Parade, as narrator of "The Unfinished Journey".

Survived by cousins Tariq Marshall, Gina Loring and Claude Marshall.

Winfield has been honored by Cord, the Black Publishers of America, the National Association of Media Women, the California Federation of Black Leadership, and Black Child Development Institution of Washington, D.C.

He and Terminator (1984) co-star (though they had no scenes together) Bill Paxton were both from the DFW area of Texas. Winfield from Dallas, and Paxton from Fort Worth.

Biography in: "The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives". Volume 7, 2003-2005, pages 579-581. Farmington Hills, MI: Thomson Gale (2007).

He has appeared in three films that have been selected for the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant": Sounder (1972), Star Trek II - L'ira di Khan (1982) and Terminator (1984).

His on-screen leading lady, Cicely Tyson, also became his off-screen paramour, and they resided together for 18 months. They appeared together in three films: Sounder (1972), A Hero Ain't Nothin' But a Sandwich (1977) and the miniseries King (1978).

Inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame in 1979.