Last month, the great James Earl Jones passed away. He was 93 and had worked in Hollywood and Broadway for more than 60 years. He was among the few performers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). President George H. Bush presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his outstanding contributions to theater and movies.
He also excelled in voiceovers. In The Lion King, he lent his voice to the wise Mufasa Simbal’s father. Yet, he is best known for the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.
Jones was a world-renowned Shakespearean actor. I saw him in Othello, and although I was seated in the balcony, his rage against Desdemona knocked me back in my seat. Christopher Plummer was the evil Iago. It was theater at its best.
Jones had several firsts. He was among the first African American actors to have a continuing role in a daytime soap opera and the first celebrity guest on Sesame Street. After graduating from the University of Michigan and ROTC, he was commissioned as a second lieutenant and was among the first Black officers to serve in an integrated unit.
Jones was in a short-lived TV series, Gabriel’s Fire, shot in Chicago. An actor friend of mine who was Jones’ stand-in got a personalized autograph for me, the closing, “May the Force be with you!”
He was mesmerizing in all his roles. His booming basso profundo voice had dignity (The Hunt for Red October) or menace (Conan the Barbarian). And his blue eyes sparked with intensity or warmth, like in Field of Dreams.
Samuel L. Jackson once said, “If you were an actor or aspired to be an actor… one of the standards we always had was to be a James Earl Jones.” (Alabama Daily News, Sept 2024.)
He was a powerhouse; a true legend.
