James Earl Jones, Distinguished Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Dies at 93
Variety
By Adam B. Vary, Carmel Dagan
September 9, 2024
James Earl Jones, the prolific film, TV and theater actor
whose resonant, unmistakable baritone was most widely known as the voice of
“Star Wars” villain Darth Vader, died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess
County, N.Y., his rep confirmed to Variety. He was 93.
After overcoming a profound stutter as a child, Jones
established himself as one of the pioneering Black actors of his generation,
amassing a bountiful and versatile career spanning over 60 years, from his
debut on Broadway in 1958 at the Cort Theatre — renamed the James Earl Jones
Theatre in 2022 — to his most recent performance in 2021’s “Coming 2 America.”
For that film, Jones reprised his role as King Jaffe Joffer from the 1988 Eddie
Murphy comedy “Coming to America” — one of several roles, along with Darth
Vader, that Jones revisited, including the voice of King Mufasa in Disney’s
animated feature “The Lion King” in 1994, the 1998 direct-to-video sequel and
the 2019 remake, and CIA deputy director Vice Admiral James Greer in three Jack
Ryan movies, 1990’s “The Hunt for Red October,” 1992’s “Patriot Games” and
1994’s “Clear and Present Danger.”
Among his more than 80 film credits, Jones’ other notable
movies include as a B-52 bombardier in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire
“Dr. Strangelove” (his feature film debut), as the first Black president of the
United States in 1972’s “The Man,” as the fearsome villain in 1982’s “Conan the
Barbarian,” as a reclusive author in 1989’s “Field of Dreams,” as a blind
former baseball star in 1993’s “The Sandlot,” and as a minister living in
apartheid South Africa in 1995’s “Cry, the Beloved Country.”
Jones was nominated for four Tony Awards, and won two, in
1969 for playing boxer Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope” (which he
reprised on film in 1970, receiving his only Oscar nomination), and in 1987 for
originating the role of Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning
drama “Fences.” He was nominated for eight primetime Emmy awards, winning twice
in 1991, for supporting actor in the miniseries “Heat Wave,” about the 1965
Watts riots, and for lead actor in the drama series “Gabriel’s Fire,” about a
wrongfully imprisoned ex-cop who becomes a private detective. It was the first
time an actor won two Emmys in the same year.
Jones earned a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen
Actors Guild Life Achievement award in 2009, an honorary Oscar in 2011 and a
lifetime achievement Tony Award in 2017. His Grammy award in 1977 for spoken
word album makes Jones only one a handful of actors to receive an EGOT.
Jones’ looming yet ultimately affable presence and rich
speaking voice made him a natural for Shakespeare, and he played some of the
great roles, such as Macbeth and Othello, for Joseph Papp’s American
Shakespeare Festival. Jones narrated several documentaries, from 1972’s “Malcom
X” to the 2007 Disneynature doc “Earth,” and, famously, he intoned the tagline
“This is CNN” for the cable news channel.
His television credits, which number over 70, including
many movies and miniseries such as “Roots” and “The Atlanta Child Murders,”
recurring roles on “L.A. Law,” “Homicide: Life on the Street” and “Everwood,”
and guest roles on shows like “The Simpsons,” “Picket Fences,” “Law &
Order,” “Frasier” and “House.”
As for his most famous role, Jones was paid $7,000 to
lend his voice to Darth Vader in 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope,” but he
declined screen credit for that film and its sequel, 1980’s “The Empire Strikes
Back,” out of deference to the actor who played the role on screen, David
Prowse. By 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” however, Jones had become fully
synonymous with one of the most memorable and terrifying villains in cinema
history, and received credit for his work. He returned to Vader’s voice again
for 2005’s “Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” and 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star
Wars Story,” but for the 2022 Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Jones instead
authorized Lucasfilm to use archival recordings and AI technology to recreate
Vader’s voice.
When asked in 2014 by the New York Times about how he’d
kept his career alive for so long, Jones’ response evoked the kind of
plainspoken humility that he had so often brought to his performances as well.
“The secret is never forgetting that you’re a journeyman
actor and that nothing is your final thing, nothing is your greatest thing,
nothing is your worst thing,” Jones said. “I still consider myself a novice.”
James Earl Jones was born in 1931 on a farm in in
Arkabutla, Miss. His father, Robert Earl Jones, left home soon after to pursue
his own acting career (the two more-or-less reconciled when the younger Jones
was in his 20s, and they even performed together). When Jones was 5, he moved
with his maternal grandparents to Michigan. The shock of the relocation induced
a stammer so severe that he often could communicate only in writing. It wasn’t
until high school when he started to overcome his stutter, when his English
teacher, upon learning that Jones composed poetry, encouraged him to read his
writing aloud in class.
As an undergraduate student at the University of
Michigan, Jones initially set out to study medicine, but wound up more
interested in drama. His first stage role was a small part in the 1957 Off
Broadway production “Wedding in Japan.” He took side jobs to supplement
occasional theater work in Broadway’s “Sunrise at Campobello,” “The Cool World”
and “The Pretender.” He also appeared in summer stock.
In 1960, Jones joined Papp’s New York Shakespeare
Festival. The following year he made his first serious impact in a landmark Off
Broadway production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” as the protagonist Deodatus.
Afterwards, for Papp, he played Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” the
first of many heralded Shakespearean turns. His masterful 1964 performance as
Othello for Papp was moved Off Broadway, where the production ran for almost a
year.
Jones’ first big break into cinema came by way of Papp’s
production of “The Merchant of Venice,” in which Jones played the Prince of
Morocco to George C. Scott’s Shylock. When Stanley Kubrick came to see Scott,
whom he was considering for one of the leads in “Dr. Strangelove,” the film
director was so impressed that he cast Jones in the film, too. In 1966, Jones
had the title role in “Macbeth” at the New York Shakespeare Festival, again to
great acclaim. He also booked a recurring role on “As the World Turns” in 1966,
marking the first time a Black actor had a continuing role on a daytime soap
opera
Still, he was almost one of Broadway’s best-kept secrets
until 1968 with his performance in Howard Sackler’s “The Great White Hope” as
Jack Johnson, the first Black man to win the world heavyweight boxing
championship. The Tony, the acclaim and its timing in the late ’60s propelled
Jones into the spotlight at a time when it was difficult for Black actors to
secure quality roles. The actor, however, has said that the accolades he
received for for both the play and its film adaptation did not do that much for
his career.
It wasn’t until 1977, when Jones’ voice terrified
audiences for the first time as Darth Vader, that things truly began to shift
for him. That same year, Jones also appeared in ABC’s “Roots” playing the
author Alex Haley, whose genealogical novel of the same title inspired the
groundbreaking miniseries. He never quite became an outright star in the
classic sense of the word, but the back-to-back successes that year did
ultimately make Jones a household name, whose presence connoted a stature and
gravitas to projects that might otherwise be lacking.
Theatre is where Jones most frequently was a box office
draw in his own right — and well into his 80s. He returned to Broadway in 2005
for a production of “On Golden Pond” opposite Leslie Uggams, drawing another
Tony nomination. In 2008, he played Big Daddy in a production of Tennessee
Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” that featured an all-Black cast including
Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose and Phylicia Rashad.
Two years later, he returned to Broadway in a revival of
“Driving Miss Daisy” opposite Vanessa Redgrave; the production’s move to London
in 2011 meant he had to miss the Honorary Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles.
Instead, Sir Ben Kingsley surprised Jones with his statuette in person after
he’d concluded a matinee performance of the show.
Jones was first married to actress-singer Julienne Marie.
His second wife of 34 years, actress Cecilia Hart, died in 2016. He is survived
his son, Flynn Earl Jones.
JONES, James Earl
Born: 1/17/1931, Arkabutla, Mississippi, U.S.A.
Died: 9/9/2024, Pawling, New York, U.S.A.
James Earl Jones’ westerns – actor:
Grim Prairie Tales – 1990 (Morrison)
Convicts – 1991 (Ben Johnson)
