William Warfield was a concert baritone singer, who gave his recital debut in New York's Town Hall in 1950. He was then quickly invited by the Australian Broadcast Corporation to tour Australia for thirty-five concerts. As an actor, he appeared in only two motion pictures, one of them being his memorable performance as Joe in the 1951 version of 演出船 (1951), filmed at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), the other as a tugboat captain in "Old Explorers". He played another dramatic role on live television in the 1950's, as De Lawd in "The Green Pastures" on the "Hallmark Hall of Fame".
He became almost as identified with the song "Ol' Man River" as 保罗·罗贝森 had a generation earlier, and starred with Leontyne Price and Cab Calloway in a European tour of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess". This "Porgy and Bess" played to sold-out houses all over Europe. It was performed to huge acclaim in Russia during the early days of the Cold War, and was the first American opera production to ever play Milan's La Scala Opera House. It wound up its tour on Broadway in 1953 (without Warfield, who was forced to drop out immediately prior because of earlier recording commitments). In contrast to the original 1935 production of the opera, it received rave reviews from the New York critics. It ran eight months on Broadway, one month less than the 1942 revival, but nevertheless rang up more performances - 305 - than any other production of "Porgy and Bess" to ever play in New York, at least until 2006. As it happened, it played at the Ziegfeld, the theatre at which the original 1927 production of "Show Boat" and its 1946 revival both played.
Warfield had made his recital debut in 1950, in Town Hall, New York City, when Roger Edens arranged for him to come to Hollywood to make his screen debut as Joe in "Show Boat".
Professor of Voice at Northwestern University.
He and Miss Price were legally separated in 1958, but did not receive a divorce decree until 1972.
In 1955, he was chosen by the Philadelphia Orchestra as their official soloist on the orchestra's first tour of Europe.
During the 1980s was chair of vocal music for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's School of Music.
African-American bass-baritone singer-actor in concert recitals, operas, oratorios, films, symphonies with speaking roles, and jazz programs such as NPR's "Riverwalk".
Was a professor of voice at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Starred in two different productions of "The Green Pastures" on television, both for the "Hallmark Hall of Fame" series.
He made six singing tours for the U.S. Department of State.
Immediately prior to his recording the Mozart Requiem with Bruno Walter, the Westminster Choir, and three other soloists, Warfield and all of the artists who made the recording participated in a live performance of the work, at Carnegie Hall.
Was supposed to have played Jim in a 1952 MGM Technicolor musical version of "Huckleberry Finn", with songs by 艾伦·杰伊 and Burton Lane, but the project was shelved. 迪恩·斯托克维尔 was supposed to have played Huck, with 吉恩·凯利 and Danny Kaye as the two con men. Some of the songs were later used in MGM's 1960 non-musical Technicolor remake of the novel, which featured an entirely different cast from the proposed 1952 version.
The song "Ol' Man River" from 'Show Boat.'