James Earl Jones, acclaimed actor and iconic voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, dies at 93

James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen — finally lends his deep, commanding voice to CNN, lion king And Darth Vader – died. He was 93. His agent Barry McPherson confirmed that Jones died Monday morning at his home in the Hudson Valley region of New York. The reason was not immediately clear.

Pioneering Jones, who in 1965 became one of the first African American actors to land a recurring role in a daytime drama. (As the world goes round) and worked deep into his 80s, winning two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts and Kennedy Center Honors. He was also given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.

He cut an elegant figure late in life with humor and a ferocious work habit. In 2015, he came to a rehearsal of a Broadway run The Gene Game Notebooks filled with already memorized plays and comments from the creative team. He said that he is always engaged in the service of work.

Jones created memorable film roles when the reclusive auteur returned to the spotlight field of dreamsBoxer Jack Johnson is a hit on stage and screen The Great White HopeAuthor Alex Haley Inn Roots: The Next Generation and a minister in South Africa Cry, dear country.

He was also a sought-after voice actor, voicing the villainous Darth Vader (“No, I’m Your Father,” commonly misremembered as “Luke, I’m Your Father”), as well as the benign figure of King Mufasa in both cases. Disney’s 1994 and 2019 versions lion king and announcing “This is CNN” during station breaks. She won a 1977 Grammy for her performance Great American documents audiobook

“If you’re an actor or an aspiring actor, if you hit the pavement looking for work on this street, our standard has always been to be James Earl Jones,” Samuel L. Jackson once said.

Some of his other photos include: Dr. Strangelove, The Greatest (with Muhammad Ali), Conan the Barbarian, The Three Fugitives And playing an admiral in three blockbuster Tom Clancy adaptations — The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games And Clear and present danger.

Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958 Sunrise in Campobello And his two Tony Award wins The Great White Hope (1969) and the fence (1987). He was also nominated In Golden Pond (2005) and Gore Vidal’s best man (2012). He was celebrated alike for his command of Shakespeare and Athol Fugard. More recent Broadway appearances include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Driving Miss Daisy, The Iceman Cometh, And You can take it with you.

As an aspiring stage and television actor, he performed at the New York Shakespeare Festival Theater Othello, Macbeth And King Lear and in Off-Broadway plays.

Jones was born on January 17, 1931, by the light of an oil lamp in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi. His father, Robert Earl Jones, left his wife before the child’s arrival to pursue a career as a boxer, and later, when Jones, an actor, was 6 years old, his mother moved him to her parents’ farm near Manistee, Michigan. His grandparents adopted the boy and brought him up.

“A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” Jones wrote in his autobiography. Voice and silence. “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. It was a heartbreak for me, and after a while I started stuttering.”

Too embarrassed to speak, he remained virtually silent for years, communicating with teachers and fellow students with handwritten notes. A sympathetic high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that the boy wrote poetry and demanded that Jones read one of his poems aloud to the class. He did so innocently.

The teacher and student worked together to restore the boy’s normal speech. “I couldn’t get enough of talking, debating, lecturing — acting,” he recalled in his book. Citing his stutter as one of the reasons he didn’t become a political activist, Jones nevertheless hoped his art could change minds.

At the University of Michigan, he failed a pre-med exam and switched to drama, also playing four seasons of basketball. He served in the army from 1953 to 1955. In New York, he moved with his father and enrolled in the American Theater Wing program for young actors. Father and son waxed floors to support themselves while looking for acting jobs.

True stardom came suddenly in the 1970s The Great White Hope. Howard Sackler’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play depicts the struggle of Jack Johnson, the first black heavyweight boxing champion, amid apartheid in 20th-century America. In 1972, Jones reprized his role in the movie version and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Jones’ two wives were also actors. He married Julien Marie Hendricks in 1967. After their divorce, he married Cecilia Hart, best known for her role as Stacey Erickson on the CBS police drama. ParisIn 1982. (He died in 2016.) They had a son, Flynn Earl, born in 1983.