He lent his voice to the “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader, but was also seen on Broadway and in numerous Hollywood films. Now the US actor James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93.
“Star Wars” fans all over the world know his deep voice: James Earl Jones gave it to the villain Darth Vader in the original English version. Underneath the cape and mask, however, it was not Jones himself, but actor David Prowse. His Scottish accent didn’t really suit the villain, so director George Lucas was looking for a voice that would sound threatening, sinister but also somewhat inhuman, Jones once said in an interview: “He probably thought of Orson Welles first, but he was too distinctive. He decided on a stuttering kid from Mississippi who grew up in Michigan.”
After his parents separated and left him with his grandparents, Jones began to stutter, and by the age of five he was sometimes unable to speak at all. He found help from a teacher, Jones recalled in an interview with the TV channel ABC: “My English teacher discovered that when I recited my own poems, I no longer stuttered. Because then I was not exposed to other people’s feelings or thoughts, only my own. So I read poems aloud and that ultimately led me to the theater.”
From Broadway to Hollywood
This story even made it into a children’s book in 2024. Translated, it is called “An Ode to Grapefruit, How James Earl Jones Found His Voice.” Jones performed on Broadway, and his first film role was that of a bomber pilot in Stanley Kubrick’s film “Dr. Strangelove, or, How I Began to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”
Jones acted in action films such as “The Hunt for Red October” and “Conan the Barbarian”. In the comedy “Coming to America” he played Eddie Murphy’s father, the King of Zamunda. And he was often heard as a voice actor. Jones was probably almost as iconic as Darth Vader as Mufasa, the father of young Simba, in the animated film “The Lion King”.
James Earl Jones suffered from diabetes
The black actor with the distinctive gap in his teeth was also good at laughing at himself: In a guest role in the TV series “Big Bang Theory” he spent a whole day with the nerdy Sheldon, playing himself as a film icon with no inhibitions.
Over the course of his career, he has won three Tony Awards for Musical Theatre, including one for lifetime achievement, as well as two Emmys, a Grammy and an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.
Jones’ health had been deteriorating over the past few years and he suffered from diabetes. This was probably one of the reasons why he no longer wanted to voice his most famous role as Darth Vader himself. Instead, he agreed to allow the Ukrainian AI company Resepeecher to officially clone his voice and use it in new “Star Wars” films. This way, at least James Earl Jones’ voice will remain immortal.