“I am your father”: This legendary line from the Star Wars saga, wrapped in the cavernous voice of Darth Vader, which marked the history of cinema and several generations, was his. James Earl Jones died on Monday, September 9, at the age of 93, his agents announced.
Beyond his voice acting roles, notably as Mufasa in The Lion KingThe African-American actor, often adorned with a chevron-shaped mustache, is recognized for his long career both on the big screen and on the stage.
However, nothing predestined him to become one of the most emblematic voices in the history of cinema: until he was 8 years old, the young James Earl Jones barely spoke due to a severe stutter. “Stuttering is painful. In catechism I tried to read the lessons and the children behind me were rolling on the floor and laughing.”He told the Daily Mail.
“I didn’t think I would become an actor”
Born in 1931 in Mississippi, a segregationist state in the south, James Earl Jones moved with his family to Michigan in the north of the United States when he was 5 years old. He eventually regained control of his speech by reciting poems, at the initiative of his English teacher, a poet himself.
However, the young man is not yet considering an artistic vocation, but rather studying medicine, or even receiving holy orders. “I didn’t think I would become an actor. Even when I started studying acting, I imagined myself as a soldier. And the idea of being an actor didn’t occur to me until almost the end of my military service.”James Earl Jones explained in 1998 to the American public broadcaster PBS.
After completing his service in the U.S. Army with the rank of lieutenant, he moved to New York in the mid-1950s to try his hand at acting, while working nights as a janitor. “I cleaned a lot of bathrooms”he told NPR radio in 2014.
The actor made his Broadway debut in 1958 with the play Sunrise in Campobello at the Cort Theatre, renamed in 2022 the James Earl Jones Theatre. Between 1961 and 1964 he performed in New York in The blacksJean Genet’s work entitled the blacks in French, alongside poet Maya Angelou.
Her first film role came with doctor strange love by Stanley Kubrick, where he plays Lieutenant Zogg aboard a B-52 bomber.
The military theme would appear frequently in his filmography, especially through his role as Admiral Greer in the film series. Jack Ryan (In search of the Red October, war games, Immediate danger), or even a sergeant major in Stone gardens by Francis Ford Coppola in 1987.
The most famous villain in the history of cinema.
Her first recognition in the industry came in 1969 with her victory at the Tony Awards, American theatre awards, for her leading role in the play. The insurgentIt tells the true story of Jack Johnson, the first African-American heavyweight boxer champion, and the “great white hope” which white American audiences expected would dethrone him. A critical success, the play was adapted for film the following year. James Earl Jones reprised the role of Jack Johnson and his performance earned him an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe.
In total, the actor was nominated for four Tony Awards between 1969 and 2012, and won two, as well as a special Tony for lifetime achievement in 2017. The film industry also honored him with an honorary Oscar in 2011.
However, his most iconic role will never see him appear on screen. George Lucas, the creator of star warsHe chose him, after considering Orson Welles, to play the voice of what would become the most famous villain in film history, Darth Vader.
“George wanted a darker voice. So he hired a guy who was born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters, and that voice is me.”says James Earl Jones in a 2009 interview with the American Film Institute.
The actor initially did not want his name to appear in the credits of the first episodes of star warsbelieving that his work was closer to special effects, and preferring that the recognition fall on the actor behind the mask, David Prowse, according to the specialist magazine Far Out.
Among his other notable roles is that of King Jaffe Joffer in A prince in New Yorkor the villain Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian.
