James Earl Jones, Dead at 93, Was Darth Vader, Mufasa, and Much More

The most recognizable voice in both this galaxy and the one far, far away has fallen silent. James Earl Jones, winner of two Tony Awards (and one honorary statuette), two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, a Grammy, and an honorary Oscar, has died. His reps at Independent Artist Group confirmed the news to Deadline. He was 93 years old.

The star of stage, screen, and television commercials, as well as the talent behind paradigm-shifting voice-over narration—in the Star Wars franchise, of course, and as the wise Mufasa in the 1994 Disney classic The Lion King—began his career in regional theater during the 1950s. Acting seemed an unlikely profession for a child with a debilitating stutter. In interviews, Jones described himself as essentially mute for eight years after his peers mocked him in Sunday school. A high school teacher’s challenge instigated his eventual triumph over his disability. When turning in a poem, the teacher said that unless Jones read it aloud, he was certain it was plagiarism.

Years later, Jones still wouldn’t describe himself as “cured”; instead, he said, he “work[ed] with it.” And amazingly, it is Jones’s deep, resonant, and clear tones for which he will be best remembered. While British bodybuilder David Prowse filled out the opaque villain’s costume in the 1977 George Lucas film, now known as Star Wars: Episode IV—A New Hope (but at the time just called Star Wars), it was Jones who provided the terrifying voice for Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith (née Anakin Skywalker).

Jones was paid $7,000 for about two and a half hours work, never thinking it would cement him as a pop-culture mainstay. (Lucas is said to have originally wanted Orson Welles, but then decided his voice was too recognizable.) Jones’s name did not appear in the Star Wars credits until the third entry, Return of the Jedi, in 1983. For over 40 years, kids at play have been imitating his basso profondo during recess.

While Darth Vader may have made Jones a household name, he was far from an unknown pre–Star Wars. He first came to Broadway in 1958, after a successful turn in a production of Othello in Michigan. It was around this time that James first met his father, Robert Earl Jones, a successful stage performer and occasional character actor in films. (Robert’s most visible role is in 1973’s The Sting; his character’s murder is what instigates Paul Newman and Robert Redford’s revenge plot against Robert Shaw.)

In 1962, James performed in The Merchant of Venice, Joseph Papp’s first Shakespeare in the Park production at the Delacorte Theater, opposite George C. Scott. (It rained on opening night.) He returned the following year for The Winter’s Tale, then Othello in 1964, then Coriolanus and Troilus and Cressida in 1965.

The year 1968 brought a new level of success, when Jones starred opposite Jane Alexander in Howard Sackler’s play The Great White Hope, a loose adaptation of boxer Jack Johnson’s life. Jones won the Tony Award (he’d win another for Fences in 1987, and an honorary prize in 2017) and was nominated for an Oscar in Martin Ritt’s 1970 movie adaptation. At the time, he was only the second African American actor in a leading role to get an Academy Award nomination. (Sidney Poitier had been nominated twice, and won once.)

The Great White Hope was not, however, Jones’s first film role. Stanley Kubrick was scouting George C. Scott for 1965’s Dr. Strangelove, and saw Jones in Merchant of Venice. While it’s only a small part, his Lt. Lothar Zogg is responsible for setting up the most iconic image in the film, if not in the entirety of Cold War cinema. Indeed, the shot of Slim Pickens “riding” a hydrogen bomb like a wild buck and hollering on his way to oblivion wouldn’t have half the impact without Jones first asking, “Hey, what about Major Kong?”