James Earl Jones, one of the great actors of his generation whose unique resonance and authentic bass-baritone voice undergirded his undeniable gravitas as a performer, died Monday morning. He was 93 years old.
His representatives at Independent Artists Group confirmed his death to The Daily Beast in a statement, saying he was surrounded by family at his home in Dutchess County, New York. The reason was not immediately shared.
deadline He was the first to report the news of his death.
After overcoming a debilitating stutter as a child, Jones was already a veteran stage actor by the time he made his onscreen debut at age 32 as Bombardier in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire. Strangelove Dr.
His role as Lt. Lothar Zogg had been cut to ribbons by the time he arrived on set, reduced to the page by the “voice of reason” challenging his superiors to a single, chilling question, he recalled in an essay. The Wall Street Journal In 2004.
Still, “I feel very fortunate to have worked with Kubrick, one of the most brilliant and innovative directors of our time,” Jones wrote. “He was unique—the only man I know who spoke like an English gentleman, if not accented, and chewed gum at the same time.”
Over the next six decades, Jones would amass scores of film credits Claudine (1964), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination, as well Coming to America (1988), A field of dreams (1989), Hunt for Red October (1990), and The sandlot (1993).
Subsequent generations of audiences recognize him primarily through his voice work, particularly as Darth Vader Star Wars franchise and, later, as Mufasa lion king.
He finished in first Star Wars film during the post-production process, he explained A kingdom of dreamsA documentary about the original trilogy.
“George hired David Prowse [to play Vader]But he said he wanted a so-called ‘darker’ sound,” Jones said. “Not in terms of ethnicity, but in terms of timbre. And rumor has it that he thought of Orson Welles.
“But he probably thought Orson might be too recognizable, so what he ended up doing was choosing a voice that was born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, and had a stutter. And that was my voice.”
Jones recorded all of his lines in just one day, was paid $7,000, and was not listed in the credits when it hit theaters in 1977. “I was lucky,” he said American Film Institute In 2009.
Always a proud nod to his popcorn-blockbuster roles, Jones occasionally mildly laments that he isn’t better known for his classical work.
“I even did King Lear! Do the kids know that? No, they have a poster of Darth Vader to sign,” he lamented Broadway.com In 2010. “But that’s okay. When you perform in front of an audience, you learn to accept what they give you. Hopefully they’ll give you their ear, as Antony said.
Born in 1931, Jones moved east to New York City in 1957 to follow in the footsteps of his father, Robert Earl Jones, who abandoned his family before his son’s birth to become an actor.
The elder Jones found early work with playwright Langston Hughes and appeared in more than 20 movies, including as an elderly con artist in the 1973 Oscar-winning caper flick. The sting.
However The New York Times Reported upon his death in 2006 that Robert reconciled with his son in the mid-1950s, according to James, they were never really close.
“It had nothing to do with my life, really because there was a separation between my mother and her,” Jones said. CBS News In 2014. “Even between my mother and my grandmother. I was brought up by my grandparents.”
Jones’ grandparents moved him from his birthplace of Mississippi to Michigan at the age of 5, a sudden change that unsettled the boy and left him with a distinctive stutter. He began to overcome it in high school, when a kind English teacher “discovered that I wrote poetry, secretly, and said, ‘If you like words like that, James, you should be able to say them out loud,'” he said. remembered
Performing Shakespeare’s poetry alleviated the issue—“If I hadn’t been struck, I would never have been an actor,” he said—but Jones struggled with his strike for the rest of his life.
“I am a stutterer, and I am glad that anything comes out with clarity,” he told Conan O’Brien in 1995.
In New York, Joe appeared both on and off Broadway before finding an artistic home at Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival, where he played the title roles. King Lear And Othello.
Reacting to his 1964 Central Park performance as Moore, The times noted that Jones “commands a full, resonant voice and supple body, and his jealous rages and frothing ferocity have not only size but also emotional credibility.” Jones would fall in love with and marry his Desdemona from that production, Julianne Marie. They would divorce in 1972.
On The Great White Way, Jones earned Tony Awards for his turn as Howard Sackler’s Torture Boxer. The Great White Hope In 1968 and August Wilson the fence In 1987. (His last Broadway performance was in the 2015 revival The Gin Game.)
Jones would reprise his role as prizefighter Jack Jefferson, based on the real-life champion Jack Johnson, in the 1970 film adaptation of Sackler’s play. He was nominated for an Oscar for the performance, but lost PaytonNo George C. Scott—his co-star Strangelove DrWhich is why Kubrick first noticed Jones.
“When Stanley came to New York to scout George C. Scott for the role of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, George happened to be playing it. Merchant of Venice at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park,” Jones wrote journal. “So was I. Stanley hired George, and seeing as Kubrick wanted to make the film’s B-52 crew multiracial, he hired me as well.”
Jones has never won a competitive Oscar. However, he was awarded an honorary statue in 2011 by Sir Ben Kingsley.
“You can’t be an actor like me and not be in some bad movies like me,” Jones said on stage. “But I stand before you deeply honored, mighty grateful and just plain dumbfounded.”
His final film appearance came in 2021, when he reprized his role as Eddie Murphy’s royal father. Coming 2 America.
He was married twice to Mary and actress Cecilia Hart. Hart and Jones met while starring in the short-lived CBS police procedural ParisAnd they would marry in 1982, she was cast as another Desdemona opposite one of his Othellos. They would stay married until her death in 2016.
She and Jones have a son, Flynn Earl Jones. Jones is also survived by Mary and a brother, Matthew.
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