James Earl Jones

Actor

• Born: January 17, 1931
• Place of Birth: Arkabutla, Mississippi
• Died: September 9, 2024
• Place of Death: Pawling, New York

With his sonorous voice and commanding presence, actor James Earl Jones enjoyed a lengthy career in entertainment, on stage and television as well as in film, between the late twentieth century and the first decades of the twenty-first. Among his other work, he voiced Darth Vader in theStar Wars film series and played the role of Alex Haley, author ofRoots (1976), in the 1979 television miniseries.

Early Life

James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931. He was of African, Irish, Choctaw, and Cherokee descent. At the age of five, he moved to Jackson, Michigan, with his maternal grandparents, Maggie and John Henry Connolly. There, he lived on a farm that had been in the family since the time of Reconstruction. The move proved to be traumatic for Jones, and he developed a stutter and refused to speak. He stuttered for more than eight years, becoming self-conscious about his speech, and he seldom spoke around other children. He attended the Browning School for boys and graduated from Brethren High School in Brethren, Michigan.

In high school, Jones achieved the confidence needed to speak in public. A high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that Jones had a passion for poetry, and Crouch helped him by making him recite poetry publicly. This method worked for Jones, and he credited his teacher for helping him overcome stuttering. Jones decided on a career in premedical studies and attended the University of Michigan. He joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and was successful, making many friends while enjoying the military environment. Soon, he came to realize that being a doctor was not his path. He spent a short time in the Army and attended Basic Infantry Officers School at Fort Benning. Also spending time at Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado, he reached the rank of first lieutenant.

Upon leaving the Army, Jones began his acting career. He traveled to New York City, facing challenges along the way. It was difficult for Black Americans to secure meaningful acting jobs at the time. He took janitorial positions to support himself. However, his strong voice, forthright demeanor, and steely determination would prevail. He was beginning to receive recognition from his performance in the 1961 American premiere of Jean Genet’s stage drama The Blacks, whose cast included Cicely Tyson, Roscoe Lee Brown, and Maya Angelou. The public was beginning to see a new generation of Black American actors. Jones’s first film role was in Dr. Strangelove: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). Having already proved himself a strong Shakespearean actor, in 1967 he began performing in The Great White Hope. This play, which premiered on Broadway in 1968, was based on the first Black American heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson. His portrayal of the boxer was considered remarkable, and for this performance, he won his first Tony Award.

Life’s Work

As a talented artist, Jones secured prominent roles throughout his career in a variety of mediums and genres. After a memorable role as Roots (1976) author Alex Haley in the televised miniseries sequel Roots: The Next Generations in 1979 and famously serving as the voice of the antagonistic character Darth Vader in the original, live-action Star Wars films between 1977 and 1983, in 1986 he took on the role of a Harvard law professor in the popular film Soul Man. Two years later, he played the king of Zamunda in the film Coming to America. He then delivered exceptional performances in such films as The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992), and Clear and Present Danger (1994), all based on the novels of Tom Clancy. While the popular animated film The Lion King (1994) featured him as the voice of Mufasa, father of protagonist Simba, another remarkable role for Jones came in Cry, the Beloved Country (1996), in which he portrayed a South African minister. In 1996, he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for outstanding performance by a male actor in a leading role. In 2008, he returned to the stage to star in Tennessee Williams’s play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof as Big Daddy. The following year, he went abroad to London in the same role. His voice was also heard in the tagline for the Cable News Network (CNN), stating simply, “This is CNN.”

The 2010s found Jones back on stage in a series of Broadway revivals: Driving Miss Daisy in 2010, Gore Vidal's The Best Man in 2012, You Can't Take It with You in 2014, and The Gin Game in 2015.

By the beginning of the 2020s, Jones had continued to return to familiar roles. In addition to again voicing Darth Vader in episodes of the animated series Star Wars Rebels between 2014 and 2016, his Darth Vader voice was included in the prequel film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and briefly in the sequel Star Wars: Episode IX—The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He provided the voice for Mufasa once more for the 2019 remake of the same name, earning an NAACP Image Award in 2020 for his work. In 2021, he reprised his role as King Jaffe Joffer in the sequel Coming 2 America. His voice was then recreated using artificial intelligence (AI) for the Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi in 2022. Later that year, he announced that he was retiring from performing as Darth Vader and that AI based on Jones's past performances would be used in his stead.

On September 9, 2024, at the age of ninety-three, Jones died at his longtime home in the New York town of Pawling.

Jones was married to American actor and singer Julienne Marie, and after their divorce, he married actor Cecilia Hart in 1982; Hart died in 2016. They had one child, Flynn Earl Jones. Julienne and Cecilia played roles with Jones in productions of Othello, the Moor of Venice.

Significance

Jones worked hard to reach his goals, overcoming a stutter to become one of the most recognized voices in the field of entertainment. Along with numerous onscreen parts, Jones enjoyed a long career as a voice-over actor, providing narration for documentaries, religious films, and animated movies. His range of roles appealed to adults as well as children. In 1969, he participated in the pilot for Sesame Street. He received a positive response from the children and became the first established celebrity to appear on the series when it officially aired.

During the 1960s, Jones made history as one of the first Black American actors to appear in a daytime soap opera, and he worked on two, Guiding Light and As the World Turns. His performances paved the way for the Black American actors who followed.

Jones was the recipient of numerous awards and honors for his work. In the 1960s, he won two Off-Broadway Obie Awards, for best actor and for distinguished performance. In addition to securing a Golden Globe Award for the 1970 film version of The Great White Hope—for which he was also nominated for an Academy Award—and a Grammy Award in 1977 in the spoken word category, he earned a second Tony for his 1987 performance in Fences, by August Wilson. Also recognized for his work in television, in the 1990s he won two Emmy Awards. Nominated for the Tony for best leading actor in the 2005 Broadway production of the play On Golden Pond, he received a nod again in 2012 for the same category, this time for his performance in Gore Vidal's The Best Man. In 2009, the Screen Actors Guild presented him with the Life Achievement Award, he was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2011, and he was also the recipient of an award for lifetime achievement at the 2017 Tony Awards ceremony.

Bibliography

Andrew, Scottie. "James Earl Jones Is Hanging Up His Cape As Darth Vader." CNN, 26 Sept. 2022, www.cnn.com/2022/09/26/entertainment/james-earl-jones-darth-vader-retiring-cec/index.html. Accessed 3 Nov. 2022.

Hasday, Judy L. James Earl Jones. Chelsea House, 1998.

"James Earl Jones." LA Phil, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, www.laphil.com/musicdb/artists/2679/james-earl-jones. Accessed 11 Sept. 2024.

Jones, James Earl. "James Earl Jones on 'The Gin Game,' Darth Vader and 'Star Wars.'" Interview by Barbara Chai. The Wall Street Journal, 28 Dec. 2015, www.wsj.com/articles/BL-SEB-92800. Accessed 11 Sept. 2024.

Jones, James Earl. James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1993.

McFadden, Robert D. "James Earl Jones, Whose Powerful Acting Resonated Onstage and Onscreen, Dies at 93." The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2024/09/09/arts/james-earl-jones-dead.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2024.

Rowe, Claudia. “James Earl Jones Helps in Own Backyard.” The New York Times, 20 June 1999, www.nytimes.com/1999/06/20/nyregion/james-earl-jones-helps-in-own-backyard.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2024.

Saperstein, Pat. "How James Earl Jones Became 'the Voice' after Years of Childhood Silence." Variety, 17 Jan. 2021, variety.com/2021/film/news/james-earl-jones-darth-vader-star-wars-1234884123/. Accessed 20 July 2021.

Vincentelli, Elisabeth. "James Earl Jones's Stage Career Was Rich, and Startlingly Diverse." The New York Times, 10 Sept. 2024, www.nytimes.com/2024/09/10/theater/james-earl-jones-broadway-theater.html. Accessed 11 Sept. 2024.