James Earl Jones, the Passing of a Legend
James Earl Jones
I know I said I’d be posting short stories this month and the next, but I couldn’t not post about this.
The great James Earl Jones has passed at the grand age of 93.
To many, he was most known as the voice of Darth Vader, and Mufasa from ‘The Lion King’.
But, of course, he was so much more than those two roles.
Jones was born in Mississippi in 1931, and, from the age of five, was raised by his maternal grandparents on their farm in Michigan.
In the early 1950s, he attended the University of Michigan and, while there, joined the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps.
During his time in the military, Jones converted to Catholicism.
He believed he’d be called to serve in the Korean War, and while waiting, he joined the Ramsdell Theatre in Michigan, working first as a stage carpenter before moving on to acting after graduating in 1955 with a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in drama.
In his first acting season, Jones portrayed Othello.
He made his acting debut on Broadway at the age of 26 in the 1958 play, ‘Sunrise at Campobello’ about President F.D. Roosevelt’s struggle with polio.
In the early to mid-1960s, Jones acted in various plays by William Shakespeare, becoming one of the best-known Shakespearean actors of the time.
James Earl Jones & Jill Clayburgh in LA production of 'Othello' 1971 - Kathleen Ballard, LA Times (W.Commons)
During this time, Jones made his film debut in 1964 in Stanley Kubrick’s ‘Dr. Strangelove’.
Over 10 years later, in 1977, came that iconic voiceover role for Darth Vader.
While George Lucas was more than happy with the actor David Prowse portraying Vader in costume, his strong West Country accent (SW England) didn’t prove to be intimidating in the slightest.
Once he’d completed the recording for Vader’s lines, Jones requested that he not be credited when the film was released, and, again, for the second film, “The Empire Strikes Back”.
As he explained in a 2008 ‘Newsday’ interview, ‘Fast Chat: James Earl Jones’, he viewed the voiceover role as “special effects”.
However, by the time the third film, “Return of the Jedi”, was released in 1983, he’d become so identified with the role, he agreed to having his name included in the credits.
While researching this post, I came across an interesting coincidence.
Even though Jones wasn’t involved in the filming of ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’, he was in the same area for the filming of another production.
Starting in March 1976, filming for ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ was taking place in southern Tunisia on the edge of the Sahara.
Between September 1975 and May 1976, filming for ‘Jesus of Nazareth’ was taking place in Morocco and the city of Monastir on the central coast of Tunisia; Jones was cast in the role of Balthazar, one of the three wise men.
Another interesting fact – Jones and Carrie Fisher had never met before this episode of ‘Big Bang Theory’:
Jones continued to act on stage and screen, including television.
Well into the 2010s, Jones was still acting on stage, on Broadway and the West End.
During his long career, Jones received three Tony Awards, two Emmy awards, a Grammy award, and an Honorary Academy Award.
One thing Jones had done which I stumbled on quite by accident – he’d recorded the entire New Testament KJV!
His voice is perfect for it, and it’s available on YouTube.
I hadn’t appreciated that Jones had suffered a severe childhood stutter, which was so bad he rendered himself mute by refusing to speak for most of his school years until high school.
There, his English teacher discovered Jones had a gift for writing poetry and encouraged him to read poetry aloud to the class, thereby challenging his reluctance to speak.
Thank heavens for Jones’ English teacher, Donald Crouch, or we would have been deprived of that marvellous, spine-tingling, instantly recognisable baritone voice.
James Earl Jones died at his home in New York on 9th of September 2024.
This month (September), UK cinemas are showing all the ‘Star Wars’ films, which means the boys will finally get to see the original trilogy on the big screen, as will I, again, after all these years.
Now, there’s going to be added poignancy when we watch them.
R.I.P James Earl Jones, legend.