Hollywood legend James Earl Jones died Monday at the age of 93. He’s been called one of greatest actors in American history for his performances on stage and screen. As a child, Jones developed a severe stutter, and credited poetry and acting for helping him overcome the challenges of his disability.
Jones made his Broadway debut in 1957, and in the 60’s became one of the best-known Shakespearean actors of the time. He worked steadily in theater, and in 1968 won the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play for his role in The Great White Hope. He reprised the role in the 1970 film adaptation, which earned him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations. He was just the second African-American male performer after Sidney Poitier to be nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award.
In 1969, Jones was involved in test marketing for Sesame Street. He filmed some screen tests, which were shown to groups of children to gauge the effectiveness of the then-groundbreaking format. Segments featuring Jones eventually aired as part of the series when it debuted in 1969. Jones is often cited as the first celebrity guest on Sesame Street, although a segment with Carol Burnett was the first to be actually broadcast.
In 1977, Jones debuted as the iconic voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars: A New Hope, which he also reprised in the sequels in 1980 and 1983. Darth Vader was portrayed by English actor David Prowse, whose strong accent George Lucas deemed unsuitable for the role. Jones said he was paid just $7000 for the first movie.
In the 1980s, Jones also appeared in several box office hits, including Conan the Barbarian, Coming to America, and Field of Dreams. He also lent his distinctive voice to Mufasa in 1994’s The Lion King. Jones was one of the few actors to achieve an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).
Jones’ last acting credit was voicing Darth Vader in the 2022 Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi”. During production, he signed a deal with Lucasfilm authorizing archival recordings of his voice to be used in the future to artificially generate the voice of Darth Vader. Jones announced in September 2022 that he was retiring from voicing Darth Vader and that future voice roles for Vader would be created by that means.
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