James Earl Jones, Legendary Actor and Voice of Darth Vader, Passes Away at 93

2017 Tony Awards - Show

James Earl Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a renowned figure in theater and film—eventually lending his deep, authoritative voice to CNN, “The Lion King” and Darth Vader—has passed away. He was 93.

His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed that Jones died on Monday morning at his home. The cause of death was not immediately disclosed.

The groundbreaking Jones, who continued to work well into his 80s, won two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was awarded an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.

He presented an elegant figure in later life, with a wry sense of humor and a relentless work ethic. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway production of “The Gin Game” having already memorized the play and with notebooks filled with notes from the creative team. He said he always prioritized the work.

“The need to tell stories has always been with us,” he told The Associated Press at the time. “I think it first happened around campfires when the man came home and told his family he got the bear, the bear didn’t get him.”

Jones created iconic film roles such as the reclusive writer coaxed back into the spotlight in “Field of Dreams,” the boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit “The Great White Hope,” the writer Alex Haley in “Roots: The Next Generation” and a South African minister in “Cry, the Beloved Country.”

He was also a sought-after voice actor, voicing Darth Vader’s ominous pronouncements (“No, I am your father,” commonly misremembered as “Luke, I am your father”), as well as the benevolent dignity of King Mufasa in Disney’s animated “The Lion King” and announcing “This is CNN” during station breaks. He won a 1977 Grammy for his performance on the “Great American Documents” audiobook.

“If you were an actor or aspired to be an actor, if you pounded the pavement in these streets looking for jobs, one of the standards we always had was to be a James Earl Jones,” Samuel L. Jackson once said.

Some of his other films include “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Greatest” (with Muhammad Ali), “Conan the Barbarian,” “Three Fugitives” and playing an admiral in three Tom Clancy blockbuster adaptations — “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger.” In a rare romantic comedy, “Claudine,” Jones had an onscreen love affair with Diahann Carroll.

Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958’s “Sunrise At Campobello” and would win his two Tony Awards for “The Great White Hope” (1969) and “Fences” (1987). He was also nominated for “On Golden Pond” (2005) and “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” (2012). He was lauded for his mastery of Shakespeare and Athol Fugard alike. More recent Broadway appearances include “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” “Driving Miss Daisy,” “The Iceman Cometh,” and “You Can’t Take It With You.”

As a rising stage and television actor, he appeared in “As the World Turns” in 1965, becoming one of the first African American actors in a continuing role in a daytime drama. He performed with the New York Shakespeare Festival Theater in “Othello,” “Macbeth” and “King Lear” and in off-Broadway plays.

Jones was born by the light of an oil lamp in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on Jan. 17, 1931. His father, Robert Earl Jones, had abandoned his wife before the baby’s arrival to pursue a life as a boxer and, later, an actor.

When Jones was 6, his mother took him to her parents’ farm near Manistee, Michigan. His grandparents adopted the boy and raised him.

“A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” Jones wrote in his autobiography, “Voices and Silences.” “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me it was a heartbreak, and not long after, I began to stutter.”