Stage and screen actor James Earl Jones, who won Tony Awards for “The Great White Hope” and “Fences,” and whose majestic basso profundo voice would become internationally recognized as the villainous Darth Vader in the “Star Wars” franchise, has died, his rep confirmed to CBS News. He was 93.
An actor renowned for his theatrical presence in works by Shakespeare, Eugene O’Neill, Tennessee Williams, Jean Genet, Anton Chekhov, August Wilson, Athol Fugard and Alfred Uhry, and in such acclaimed films as “Field of Dreams,” Jones would become even more famous for his voice, whether it was as a commercial pitchman, an announcer for CNN, the father of Disney’s animated “Lion King,” or a Dark Lord of the Sith — all the more remarkable given that as a child he suffered a stutter, which continued throughout his life.
“I stuttered so badly it was embarrassing and very painful,” Jones told CBS’ “Sunday Morning” in 2008.
Jones’ road to overcoming his stutter would lead to a monumental career on Broadway and in Hollywood, with nearly 200 film and TV credits. He broke ground on soap operas (appearing on CBS’ “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light”); worked with such directors as Stanley Kubrick, Franco Zeffirelli, George Lucas, John Sayles and James Ivory; won a Grammy for a spoken word recording; and lent his voice to recordings of works as varied as Lewis Carroll, “Sesame Street,” the King James Bible and “The Simpsons.”
In 2008, when he returned to Broadway to play Big Daddy in a revival of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” Jones was asked if the stage was an oasis for him. “Oh, I wouldn’t say that; an oasis is a place for survival,” he remarked. “And this is about joy. … It’s a playpen.”
Breakout roles
Jones was born on January 17, 1931, in Arkabutla, Mississippi. His parents separated before his birth, and he was left to be raised by his maternal grandparents, who moved the family from their Mississippi farm to the Midwest. Growing up in the backwoods of Michigan, Jones credited an English teacher who helped him overcome his stutter, which had caused him to speak hardly a word from the time he was 6 until he was 14.
“Professor Crouch was my English teacher. And when he discovered that I secretly wrote poetry he challenged me,” Jones told “Sunday Morning.” “He said, ‘Jim, if you like words that much, you know, you should be able to say them out loud. Why don’t you get up in front of the class and read that poem that you wrote? … The only way you can prove you wrote it is to say it out loud but from memory.'”
Regaining the power of speech through poetry inspired Jones to pursue a career in the arts. After starting out pre-med at the University of Michigan, he switched to drama in his junior year. An ROTC member, Jones served in the Army as a second lieutenant beginning in 1953, training at Fort Benning in Georgia, and was assigned to Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado. He was discharged as a first lieutenant.
In New York, Jones studied at the American Theatre Wing, cleaning toilets while he auditioned for parts. He landed his first Broadway role in 1957, appeared in experimental plays off-Broadway, starred in numerous Shakespeare productions (including “Othello,” “Coriolanus,” “The Merchant of Venice,” “Troilus and Cressida,” “Hamlet” and “King Lear”), was featured in the films “Dr. Strangelove” and “The Comedians,” and on TV’s “Guiding Light” and “As the World Turns.”
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