(Caesar), African-American baritone and teacher; b. West Helena, Ark., Jan. 22, 1920. Warfield studied at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., graduating in 1942. He sang in opera and musical comedy, giving his first N.Y. song recital in 1950, with excellent critical acclaim. He subsequently toured Europe in the role of Porgy in GEORGE GERSHWIN'S Porgy and Bess. He married the soprano LEONTYNE PRICE in 1952 (they were divorced in 1972).

In 1974 Warfield was appointed a professor of music at the University of Illinois, and in 1984 he was elected president of the National Association of Negro Musicians. With A. Miller, he published William Warfield: My Music and My Life (Champaign, 111., 1991). In 1994 he became a professor of music at Northwestern University.