James Earl Jones (1931-2024)
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Veteran stage, television and film actor known for his 1,000-kilowatt smile and deep, mellifluous baritone voice – who premiered August Wilson’s FENCES at Chicago’s Goodman theater and later on Broadway – has passed away at the age of 93 at his home in Dutchess County NY. Jones was a rare performer – equally skilled in classical stage work as well as popular TV and voiceover work.
Jones’ prolific career included Shakespeare, the Greeks, Jean Genet and a hundred comedies, but he was a fixture in our communal consciousness as the original voice of Darth Vader from Star Wars, Mufasa from THE LION KING, and the voice of CNN. No one can hear “Luke, I am your father” and “this is CNN” without thinking of this iconic performer. Jones’ artistic choices were instrumental in changing the landscape of civil rights in America. Early in his career, he was a pathbreaking regular on the soap opera AS THE WORLD TURNS. His first Tony Award was for THE GREAT WHITE HOPE in 1969, as a fictionalized version of boxer Jack Johnson. Jones won his second Tony for playing Troy Maxson in FENCES, a Negro League slugger robbed of his future because he came along too early for white America, before Jackie Robinson, to conceive of a future for any Black man in the major leagues. Jones played Alex Haley in ROOTS: THE NEXT GENERATION, and played the first African-American president, in Joseph Sargent’s 1972 movie THE MAN based on an Irving Wallace novel. He performed to great acclaim in Lorraine Hansberry’s 1970 production of LES BLANCS (a response to Jean Genet’s THE BLACKS); the 1972 all-black production of THE CHERRY ORCHARD; John Steinbeck’s OF MICE AND MEN on Broadway; a stately 1974 KING LEAR with Papp’s Public Theatre in NY’s Central Park; and as Paul Robeson on Broadway 1977-78. His last appearance on Broadway was in a 2015 revival of DL Coburn’s THE GIN GAME, opposite Cicely Tyson. He was given a lifetime achievement Tony award in 2017, and the Cort theatre was renamed the James Earl Jones theatre in 2022. Over his extensive career, Jones played presidents and kings and garbage haulers and apartheid survivors, ultimately becoming the leading black actor of his generation. Jones graduated from the University of Michigan, and went on to serve as a US Army Ranger in the Korean war. He began working as an actor and stage manager at the Ramsdell theatre in Manistee MI, where he played his first OTHELLO in 1955. Jones studied at NYC’s American Theatre Wing with Lee Strasberg. He made his Broadway debut at the Cort theatre in 1958 in Dory Schary’s Sunrise at Campobello, a play about Franklin D Roosevelt. Jones was born in Arkabutla MS, the son of Robert Earl Jones, a minor actor, boxer, butler and chauffeur, and his wife Ruth (nee Connolly), a teacher, and was proud of claiming African and Irish ancestry. His father left home soon after he was born, and he was raised on a farm in Jackson MI, by his maternal grandparents, John and Maggie Connolly. Jones’s first marriage, to Julienne Marie (1968-72), ended in divorce. In 1982 he married Cecilia Hart with whom he had a son, Flynn. She died in 2016. He is survived by Flynn, also an actor, and a brother, Matthew. As a young boy, Jones struggled with a severe stutter, and for years did not speak, until a teacher encouraged him to read poetry aloud, eventually with force and clarity and assurance. In his own words, Jones talks about what performing means to him: “When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.” With Thanks to the Chicago Tribune and The Guardian for added content. |