Renowned Actor James Earl Jones Dies at 93

James Earl Jones, an imposing figure on stage and screen, passed away on Monday at the age of 93. He became famous around the world as Darth Vader, a cosmic evil, after overcoming a childhood stammer and developing a stentorian voice.

According to Jones’s representative Barry McPherson, James Earl Jones passed away at home with his family by his side.

Despite his commanding stage presence, Jones’s voice carried him far in his career; he would have been famous even if no one ever saw his face. Depending on the scene, the deep bass might either inspire reverence (as it did for the wise father Mufasa in “The Lion King” and other Shakespearean parts) or terror (as it did for the rasping Vader in the “Star Wars” movies).

In response to a question from a Reuters interviewer about whether he disliked being so strongly associated with Darth Vader, Jones burst out laughing. The job only called for his voice for a few lines, while another actor wore the mask and performed the onscreen action.

“I love being part of that whole myth, of that whole cult,” he remarked, also expressing his pleasure to satisfy fans who wanted him to repeat his “I am your father” line to Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker.

James Earl Jones Oscar

On Monday, alongside a sad heart emoji, Hamill commented on X, “#RIP dad,” under a news article about Jones’s passing.

Jones claimed he earned barely $9,000 for the original film’s Darth Vader role and treated it as nothing more than a special effects gig. In fact, he never even asked to be named in the credits of the first “Star Wars” films.

On Broadway, he won Tonys for “The Great White Hope” in 1969 and “Fences” in 1987, and in 1991, he won Emmys for “Gabriel’s Fire” and “Heat Wave” on television. His collection of accolades is extensive. Grammys for best spoken word album and “Great American Documents” were both bestowed upon him in 1977.

Although he never took home an actual Oscar, he did receive an honorary nomination for his performance in 2011’s “The Great White Hope” and was considered for best actor in the film adaptation.

One of his earliest film roles James Earl Jones was as Lieutenant Luther Zogg in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learnt to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”

Among his subsequent critically lauded film performances were those of South African Reverend Stephen Kumalo in 1995’s “Cry, the Beloved Country” and novelist Terence Mann in 1989’s “Field of Dreams.” He has been in numerous films, including “Field of Dreams,” “The Sandlot,” “Matewan,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Conan the Barbarian,” “Coming to America,” and so on.

In addition to his appearances in scores of ads, Jones provided the authoritative voice-over for CNN’s newscast introductions for a number of years.

Irish, African, and Cherokee ancestry

A member of a mixed-race family sprung from Irish, African, and Cherokee ancestry, James Earl Jones came into this world on January 17, 1931, in the little Mississippi town of Arkabutla.

Not long after that, Robert Earl Jones Sr., who had been a prizefighter and was now an actor, abandoned the family. It wasn’t until James relocated to New York in the 1950s that he was able to reconcile with his father, as his maternal grandparents had forbidden him to see him while he was growing up. In due time, they shared the stage in other productions.

When Jones’s grandparents uprooted the family from Mississippi and settled on a farm in Michigan when he was around five years old, he began to stutter and eventually stopped speaking altogether.

His high school English teacher used a trick to get him to speak up after he remained mute for ten years. Jones claimed to have written a poem, which the teacher then had him repeat to the class as evidence that he was the real author.

Jones got over his stammer and developed an interest in acting, but he later admitted that he still had to be careful with his words.

Moving to New York after completing his drama degree at Michigan, he began to receive more and more praise for his stage performances.

He played the role of Black heavyweight champion Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope,” his breakout Broadway performance. Reviewers gushed over Jones’s portrayal of the racist boxer in the critically acclaimed play.

His starring performances as Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear, and Othello in Shakespeare’s plays kept audiences captivated for decades. Paul Robeson, a singer, actor, and activist, was one of his memorable 1977 Broadway roles, and he played Alex Haley, an author, in the TV miniseries “Roots: The Next Generation.”

According to a 1987 review of “Fences” in the Washington Post, he could “move in seconds from boyish ingenuousness to near-biblical rage and somehow suggesting all the gradations in between.”

One of Jones’s co-stars in “Othello,” Julienne Marie Hendricks, was his first wife. Flynn Earl Jones was born to Earl and his second wife, the late actress Cecilia Hart. Cecilia passed away in 2016.

Jones won major roles in politically charged films and plays, paving the way for other Black actors to follow in his footsteps.

Jones rose to prominence during the height of the civil rights movement in the ’60s and ’70s, but he avoided taking a stand on racial issues.

Jones told the Toronto Star in 2013 that he thought many people thought he was weak for not being a stronger advocate for the cause while he was famous. According to the actor, though, he would rather have his work speak for itself.

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