James Earl Jones, the actor whose beautiful deep tones made Darth Vader sound so bad in Star Wars, has died at the age of 93.
James Earl Jones—the legendary Star Wars and The Lion King voice actor—has passed away at 93. pic.twitter.com/Pc7wOuyUYH
— E! News (@enews) September 10, 2024
News from Jones’s reps said that he died at his home in Dutchess County, New York. The cause of death was not given.
Even George Lucas, the author of Star Wars, said nice things about James. He called him “an incredible actor, a most unique voice both in art and spirit.” Darth Vader’s son Luke Skywalker was played by Mark Hamill. He wrote on social media, “RIP dad.”
Jones worked with Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams. Costner wrote, “That booming voice.” That quiet power. How kind he was to everyone. He left behind a lot of great works, but I will just say how grateful I am that Field of Dreams is one of them.
Actor Octavia Spencer wrote, “Legendary doesn’t even begin to describe his iconic roles and impact on cinema forever.” Actor Colman Domingo called him “a master of our craft.” We are stronger because of you. Take a break now. You did your best for us.
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Jones wasn’t the first choice to play Darth Vader. The British bodybuilder David Prowse was cast in the 1977 movie because of his impressive figure, but George Lucas, who directed the movie, didn’t like Prowse’s strong West Country accent. Jones was given the job of revoicing Vader’s scary lines, which made the bad guy quickly immortal. Jones didn’t think of himself as a big name at the time; he just called himself “special effects.” He wasn’t given credit until 1983, in The Return of the Jedi, the third Star Wars movie. After the original trilogy, Jones’s voice would be heard in six more Star Wars movies: The Revenge of the Sith (2005), Rogue One (2016), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019). He would also be in the famous 1978 Holiday Special and the TV show Star Wars: Rebels, which ran from 2014 to 2018.
James Earl Jones has sadly passed away at the age of 93. pic.twitter.com/zkpBrabfe4
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) September 9, 2024
Jones also did a voice-only part that did very well: Mufasa in the 1994 Disney animated movie The Lion King. His death at the hands of his evil brother Scar may have traumatized a generation of children as much as Bambi’s mother’s death. In the 2019 remake, directed by Jon Favreau, Jones played the same part again. The story tried to have a more authentic national feel to it.
As a stage actress, Jones had already achieved a lot of fame and success by this point. In 1931, Jones was born in Mississippi. He grew up in Michigan, where his family moved during the Great Migration. Robert Earl Jones was Jones’s father, but he left his family before he was born, and the two didn’t see each other much until the 1950s. Jones senior was in Langston Hughes’s play Don’t You Want to be Free?, many of Oscar Micheaux’s early films, and a number of well-known Hollywood movies, such as The Sting, where he played a thief named Luther Coleman.
As a child, Jones had a stammer that he got rid of with the help of a teacher. Jones quickly made a name for himself as a stage actor after studying drama at the University of Michigan and serving in the military after the Korean War. In 1958, he made his Broadway debut with a small part in Sunrise at Campobello, Dore Schary’s play about Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s polio diagnosis.
ones would be in some important plays in the 1960s, such as The Blacks by Jean Genet, Baal by Bertolt Brecht, and Danton’s Death by Georg Büchner. Jones also acted in many Shakespeare plays on Broadway, including The Merchant of Venice, Coriolanus, The Winter’s Tale, and, most famously, Othello in 1964, a part he would play again in 1982. Jones also started to get roles in movies. His first movie role was as airman Lothar Zogg in Dr. Strangelove, a comedy about nuclear war by Stanley Kubrick.
Jones got what might have been his most important stage part in 1967: he played boxer Jack Jefferson in Howard Sackler’s play The Great White Hope, based on the real-life great Jack Johnson. Jones won the Tony Award for Best Actor in 1969 and then starred in Martin Ritt’s 1970 film adaptation. He was nominated for an Oscar for best actor and was the second black actor to be named for the award.
#RIP James Earl Jones who passed away today at the age of 93. Jones was an Army veteran who used the GI Bill to study acting before launching a career that included providing the voice for Darth Vader and portraying Admiral James Greer in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. pic.twitter.com/pO0SJdSFTJ
— U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) September 9, 2024
The movie made Jones a main man in Hollywood, and he was able to take advantage of the new chances that were open to African American actors at the time. In the movie “The Man,” he played a senator who becomes the first black president. In “Claudine,” a love comedy with Diahann Carroll, he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Actress.
Jones’s reputation in mainstream movies was cemented by Star Wars and its sequels. He then had a steady stream of supporting parts in big movies and became one of the most famous black American actors of the 1980s and 1990s. In Conan the Barbarian, he starred opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger as the evil Thulsa Doom. In Coming to America, he played Eddie Murphy’s father, in Field of Dreams, he played author Terence Mann, and in The Hunt for Red October, he played the CIA assistant director.
Jones kept going to the theater whenever he could. He played the lead in August Wilson’s Fences and won a second Tony Award in 1987 for his performance as trash collector Troy Maxson. In 2010, he played driver Hoke Colburn in the touring revival of Driving Miss Daisy. A production of Much Ado About Nothing by Mark Rylance starred Vanessa Redgrave as Beatrice and him as Benedick in 2013.
Jones was married twice. The first time was to Julienne Marie, an actress and singer, from 1968 to 1972. The second time was to Cecilia Hart, who died in 2016. His acting son Flynn will miss him a lot.
