The famous actor James Earl Jones died this morning at his home in Dutchess County, NY. He was an EGOT winner and voiced the bad guy Darth Vader in Star Wars. Jones also acted in Field of Dreams and many other movies and Broadway shows. He was 93 years old.
His agents at Independent Artist Group told Deadline that the story was true.
Many people think Jones is one of the best performers of all time, and he is one of only a few entertainers to have won all four awards (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony). However, his Academy Award was only an honorary one. Jones has won three Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Daytime Emmy. In 1977, she won a Grammy Award for her spoken word work.
#RIP James Earl Jones who passed away today at the age of 93. Jones was an Army veteran who used the GI Bill to study acting before launching a career that included providing the voice for Darth Vader and portraying Admiral James Greer in THE HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER. pic.twitter.com/pO0SJdSFTJ
— U.S. Naval Institute (@NavalInstitute) September 9, 2024
He had a great 60-year career that included nearly 200 movie parts, starting with TV cameos in the early 1960s and ending with Stanley Kubrick’s classic 1964 film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. He is likely best known for giving Darth Vader’s voice in George Lucas’s original Star Wars series, which included Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi (1983). He also played the bad guy again in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker (2019), and the TV shows Obi-Wan Kenobi and Star Wars: Rebels.
Fans of the movies will always remember Vader’s scary lines, like “When I left you, I was but the learner; now I am the master.” “Your lack of faith bothers me,” and “No, I am your father.”
Jones’s other well-known part is that of Terence Mann, a reclusive author from the 1960s who reluctantly works with Kevin Costner’s character Ray Kinsella to unlock Kinsella’s baseball-themed dreams in Field of Dreams (1989). The movie, written and directed by Phil Alden Robinson, was based on the 1982 book Shoeless Joe. It pulled at our heartstrings with its sweet nostalgia, high-concept story, father-son relationships, and general excellence.
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Three Oscars were nominated for it, including Best Picture, but Driving Miss Daisy won. Jones played Hoke Colburn in the Broadway version of the movie, which Morgan Freeman played in the movie.
Jones also played the role of Mufasa in The Lion King, both in the animated movie from 1994 and the HD hybrid remake from 2019. He also directed dozens of other movies, such as The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976), A Piece of the Action (1977), Conan the Barbarian (1982), Soul Man (1986), Coming to America (1988), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992), Sneakers (1992), The Sandlot (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), Judge Dredd (1995), Gang Related (1999), and Coming 2 America (2021).
He also used his rich voice in the well-known He was on The Simpsons three times as well.
He has had many guest roles on TV shows like The Big Bang Theory, House, Two and a Half Men, Homicide: Life on the Street, Frasier, Touched by an Angel, Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Picket Fences, Law & Order, Sesame Street, Highway to Heaven, and NYPD Blue. He has also been in daytime soaps like Guiding Light and As the World Turns and miniseries like Roots: The Next Generation and Jesus of Nazareth.
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For his part in The Great White Hope (1971), he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Lead Actor. At the 2012 event, he was given an honorary Oscar.
He was nominated for eight Emmys and won two in 1991, for Lead Actor in a Drama Series for Gabriel’s Fire and Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or Special for Heat Wave.
Jones was born in Arkabutla, MS, on January 17, 1931. He was honored by the Kennedy Center in 2002 and given Lifetime Achievement Awards by both SAG-AFTRA and the National Board of Review in 1995.
Jones was a powerful actor on Broadway. He was nominated four times for the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and won twice, for his roles as Jack Jefferson in “The Great White Hope” (1969) and Troy Maxson in “Fences” (1987). At the 2017 event, he got a Special Tony Award.
James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars, has passed away https://t.co/TaBXtBMe1W
— t2 (@t2telegraph) September 10, 2024
In The Great White Hope, Jones played a heavily improvised version of heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. This was his big break. It was also made into a movie in 1970, which was his first lead part in a movie.
From his first lead part in Sunrise at Campobello in 1958 to his most recent in The Gin Game, he was in almost twenty Broadway shows. Along the way, he played lead roles in renowned plays like Othello (1982), The Iceman Cometh (1974), On Golden Pond (2005), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), and You Can’t Take It with You (2014).
They changed the name of their 110-year-old Cort Theatre to The James Earl Jones Theatre in September 2022. Samuel L. Jackson, LaTanya Richardson Jackson, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Norm Lewis, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams were all there for the event.
Jones didn’t go to the dedication event, but the week before, he was given a private tour of the building where he made his Broadway debut in 1958.
Jones said at the time, “Having stood in this building 64 years ago at the start of my Broadway career, it would have been unimaginable that my name would be on the building today.” “Let my journey from then to now serve as an example for all people who want to be actors.”
