William Wintersole

William Wintersole was an American character actor and soap opera star who played attorney Mitchell Sherman for 25 years on "The Young and the Restless" (CBS, 1973-), a role that would come to define his decades-long career. Born in Portsmouth, Ohio, Wintersole did not begin acting professionally on television until he was in his early 30s. In his early 20s he was drafted into the nation's armed forces, and was stationed with the American Forces Radio and Television service during the Korean War. He later attended UCLA, where he earned his bachelor's degree. Having always had a desire to work in entertainment, by the late 1950s and early 1960s Wintersole began sharpening his performance chops with stints on radio and the stage. His real desire, however, was to be acting on TV, which in the early 1960s was still a relatively new medium. Then in 1964, he nabbed his first role on television with a guest spot on the science fiction series "The Outer Limits" (ABC, 1963-65). More TV roles followed, with Wintersole landing guest spots on "Rawhide" (CBS, 1959-1963), "The Fugitive" (ABC, 1963-67), "Star Trek: The Original Series" (NBC, 1966-69), and various other network shows throughout the 1960s. Wintersole's TV acting output remained steady throughout the 1970s, and well into the 1980s. Although he was never a series regular during this period, he did manage to work frequently by landing a number of guest spots on various different TV shows. It was also during the 70s and early 80s that Wintersole began adding film roles to his acting resume. Some of the movies he appeared in, included "Leadbelly" (1976) and "Coma" (1978), as well as made-for-TV movies like "The Day the Bubble Burst" 1982) and "Kate's Secret" (NBC, 1986). Then in 1986, after having over 20 years of screen acting experience behind him, Wintersole landed the break of his career when he joined the cast of the long-running daytime soap opera "The Young and the Restless." Wintersole played the attorney Mitchell Sherman on the series from 1986 to 2011. Although he did nab roles in the TV movie "And the Band Played On" (NBC, 1993) and the mini-series "The Secrets of Lake Success" (NBC, 1993), Wintersole played only the role of Mitchell Sherman throughout the remainder of the 1990s and 2000s. He made his last appearance on "The Young and the Restless" in 2011, making no other screen appearances thereafter. On November 5, 2019, William Wintersole died at his home in Los Angeles. He was 88.