James Earl Jones

At 93 years old, James Earl Jones has this physical status:

James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor.

His career spans more than seven decades, and he has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors and "one of the greatest actors in American history".

Since his Broadway debut in 1957, Jones has won many awards, including a Tony Award for his role in The Great White Hope, which also earned him a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role for the film version of the play.

Jones has won three Emmy Awards, including two in the same year in 1990.

He is also known for his voice roles as Darth Vader in the Star Wars film series and Mufasa in Disney's The Lion King, as well as many other film, stage and television roles. Jones has been said to possess "one of the best-known voices in show business, a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas" to his projects, including live-action acting, voice acting, and commercial voice-overs.

In 1970, he won a Grammy Award for Great American Documents.

As a child, Jones had a stutter.

In his episode of Biography, he said he overcame the affliction through poetry, public speaking, and acting, although it lasted for several years.

A pre-med major in college, he went on to serve in the United States Army during the Korean War before pursuing a career in acting.

On November 12, 2011, he received an Honorary Academy Award.

On November 9, 2015, Jones received the Voice Arts Icon Award.

On May 25, 2017, he received an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Harvard University and concluded the event's benediction with "May the Force be with you".

Early life

James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931, to Ruth (née Connolly); (1911–1986), a teacher and maid, and Robert Earl Jones (1910–2006), a boxer, butler and chauffeur. His father left the family shortly after James Earl's birth and later became a stage and screen actor in New York and Hollywood. Jones and his father did not get to know each other until the 1950s, when they reconciled. He has said in interviews that his parents were both of mixed African-American, Irish and Native American ancestry.

From the age of five, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Maggie Connolly, on their farm in Jackson, Michigan; they had moved from Mississippi in the Great Migration. Jones found the transition to living with his grandparents in Michigan traumatic and developed a stutter so severe that he refused to speak. "I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school." He credits his English teacher, Donald Crouch, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him end his silence. Crouch urged him to challenge his reluctance to speak through reading poetry aloud to the class.

Jones was educated at the Browning School for boys in his high school years and graduated in 1949 as vice president of his class from Dickson Rural Agricultural School (now Brethren High School) in Brethren, Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan, where he was initially a pre-med major. He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and excelled. He felt comfortable within the structure of the military environment and enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow cadets in the Pershing Rifles Drill Team and Scabbard and Blade Honor Society. During the course of his studies, Jones discovered he was not cut out to be a doctor.

Instead, he focused on drama at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance with the thought of doing something he enjoyed, before, he assumed, he would have to go off to fight in the Korean War. After four years of college, Jones graduated from the university in 1955.

Personal life

In 1968, Jones married actress and singer Julienne Marie, whom he met while performing as Othello in 1964. They had no children and divorced in 1972. In 1982, he married actress Cecilia Hart, with whom he had one child, son Flynn (born 1982). Hart died from ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016.

In April 2016, Jones spoke publicly for the first time in nearly 20 years about his long-term health challenge with type 2 diabetes. He was diagnosed in the mid-1990s after his doctor noticed he had fallen asleep while exercising at a gym.

Jones is Catholic, having converted during his time in the military.

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Career

Jones began his acting career at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. He was a stage carpenter in 1953. He was both an actor and stage manager during the 1955-57 years. In 1955, he appeared in this theater for the first time as Shakespeare's Othello. His early career included an appearance in the ABC radio anthology series Theatre-Five. In the short-lived play The Egghead by Molly Kazan, he made his Broadway debut as understudie to Lloyd Richards in 1957. Jones appeared in only 21 performances, but three months later, Jones performed Edward the butler in Dore Schary's Sunrise at Campobello at the Cort Theatre in January 1958.

Jones appeared in various William Shakespeare plays from the early to mid 1960s, making him one of the finest Shakespeare actors of the period. In A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measurement, and Claudius in Hamlet, he performed Othello and King Lear, Oberon.

Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove (1964) as the young Lt. Lothar Zogg, the B-52 bombardier. In The Comedians, Jones will play a surgeon and Haitian rebel leader, as well as Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Alec Guinness.

Jones appeared in Howard Sackler's play The Great White Hope in Washington, D.C., in December 1967. In December 1967, Jones played alongside Jane Alexander as the vivacious but troubled boxer "Jack Jefferson," based on the true champion Jack Johnson. When the play opened in Broadway on October 3, 1968, it was a huge success. The play was well received, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Jones received the 1999 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for his performance.

Jones participated in making test films for the children's education series Sesame Street in 1969; these shorts, as well as animated segments, were shown to audiences of children to determine the appropriateness of the then-groundbreaking Sesame Street design. The short that had the most impact on test audiences was one involving bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten, as cited in production notes. Jones and other segments starring Jones debuted as part of the Sesame Street franchise and are often credited as the first celebrity guest on the program, although a segment with Carol Burnett was the first to be broadcast. He appeared on the soap opera Guiding Light.

In 1973, Jones appeared Hickey at the Circle in the Square Theater in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh. In the 1974 Brooks Atkinson Theatre production of John Steinbeck's classicla, Of Mice and Men, with Kevin Conway as George and Pamela Blair as Curley's Wife. At the New York City Shakespeare Festival in Central Park in Central Park, he appeared in the title role of William Shakespeare's King Lear opposite Paul Sorvino, René Auberjonois, and Raul Julia.

Jones reunited with Jane Alexander in the film version of The Great White Hope in 1970. This will be Jones' first leading film role. Jack Johnson was portrayed by Jones in a role he had never played before, in a role that he had never played on stage. Critics lauded his work, earning him the Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. After Sidney Poitier's nomination for this award, he became the second African-American male performer to be nominated. Variety said that "Jones' re-creation of his stage role is an eye-riveting experience." His character was depicted as more than life, thanks to his ferocious rages and unrestrained delights of which his character was capable.

Jones starred in The Man (1972) as a senator who unexpectedly became the first African-American president of the United States. Martin Balsam and Burgess Meredith appeared in the film.

Jones co-starred with Diahann Carroll in the film Claudine, the story of a woman who raises her six children alone after two failed and two "almost" marriages. The film is a romantic comedy and drama that focuses on racial inequalities in black families. It was one of the first major films to explore topics such as poverty, income disparities, and the traditional marriage of men and women in the African American community during the 1970s. Jones and Carroll received acclaim and Golden Globe nominations for their performances. Carroll was also nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

As he explained in a 2008 interview:

Jones was also honoured with the Best Spoken Word Album for Great American Documents in 1977.

Jones appeared on CBS' short-lived police drama in Paris in late 1979, which was notable as the first program on which Steven Bochco served as executive producer. Jones appeared in the critically acclaimed TV mini-series Roots: The Next Generations as the older version of author Alex Haley.

Jones appeared in August Wilson's Fences as Troy Maxson, a middle-aged working class father who struggles to care for his family. Wilson's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle" plays the role, which takes place in the 1950s. The play, among other things, discusses the changing African experience and investigates race relations. Jones received his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, garnering him widespread critical acclaim.

Jones appeared in several other box office hits of the 1980s: the Eddie Murphy comedy Conan the Barbarian (1982), the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America (1988), and the sports drama/fantasy Field of Dreams (1989) which received an Academy Award nomination. He also appeared in the 1989 film Matewan (1987). The film recreated the events of the Battle of Matewan, a coal miners' rebellion in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia, in Matewan, a coal miners' rebellion. For his work, he was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award.

In the first episode of Hanna-Barbera's The Greatest Adventure: Stories From the Bible, Jones lent his bass voice as Pharaoh. Jones appeared on the children's television series Long Ago and Far Away from 1989 to 1992.

Jones appeared in numerous other successful films during the 1990s, including The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992), The Sandlot (1993), Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). In the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King, he also lent his distinctive bass voice to the role of Mufasa.

President George H. W. Bush awarded Jones with the National Medal of the Arts in 1992.

Jones has the distinction of winning two Primetime Emmy Awards in the same year, as Best Actor in Gabriel's Fire and as the Best Support Actor for his role in Heat Wave.

In three series, he has appeared in lead roles. The second series of ABC televised between 1990 and 1992, with Gabriel's Fire in the first season and Pros and Consci, the second (after a layout change) Pros and Cons. Jones played a former policeman wrongfully accused of murder who, on his release from jail, became a private eye. In 1995, Jones starred in Under One Roof as Neb Langston, a homeless African-American police officer who lived in Seattle with his daughter, his married son, and Neb's newly adopted son. The show was a mid-season replacement and lasted only six weeks, but earned him another Emmy nomination. Thad Green appeared on "Mathnet," a parody of Dragnet on PBS' Square One Television. Jones appeared in the critically acclaimed syndicated program An American Moment (created by James R. Kirk and Ninth Wave Productions) in 1998. Jones took over the role left by Charles Kuralt after Kuralt's demise.

Over the years, James has appeared on many television shows, including for NBC's Law & Order, Frasier, and Will & Grace, as well as ABC's Lois & Clark's The New Adventures of Superman. Jones appeared on "The Raven" in 1990, in which he was the narrator for the Simpsons' interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven." In Pinocchio, he also spoke to the Emperor of the Night and the Emperor of the Night and Ommadon in Flight of Dragons. Jones performed the National Anthem in Baltimore, 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. He was accompanied by the Morgan State University choir. In 1996, he recited the great baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, as well as in 2007, shortly before a Philadelphia Phillies home game on June 1, 2007.

Jones appeared on various television programs, including CBS's Two and a Half Men, Fox's medical drama House, M.D., and CBS' The Big Bang Theory during the 2000s.

Jones received Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., in 2002. Also attending the function were fellow honorees Paul Simon, Elizabeth Taylor, and Chita Rivera. "People believe that the president's voice is the most widely recognized voice in America," President George W. Bush joked. Well, I'm not going to make that argument in the presence of James Earl Jones." Sidney Poitier, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, and Courtney B. Vance were among those in honor of Jones.

"This is CNN," as well as "This is CNN International," has been used by CNN" and the opening for CNN's morning show New Day. Jones was also a long-serving Bell Atlantic and later Verizon spokesman. In the television show "The Big PI in the Sky" is a reference from Mike's coverage of the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics; "the Big PI in the Sky" in the computer game; a Claymation film titled "The Creation" is included under the banner; and numerous other guest appearances on The Simpsons. In the audiobook James Earl Jones Reads the Bible, Jones narrated all 27 books of the New Testament.

Although uncredited, Jones' voice is possible to be heard as Darth Vader at the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode III – Resurrection of the Sith (2005). Jones told Newsday, "You'd have to ask Lucas about that if he had provided the voice, perhaps from a previous recording." I'm not sure.

Jones and Leslie Uggams appeared in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond starring Leonard Foglia and directed by Jeffrey Finn on April 7, 2005. In February 2008, he appeared on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof directed by Debbie Allen and mounted at the Broadhurst Theatre. In November 2009, James revived the role of Big Daddy in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London's West End. Maggie, Phylicia Rashad as Big Mamma, and Adrian Lester as Brick appear in this film.

Jones appeared as a patient in the fourth episode of the medical drama House M.D. in 2009.

Jones was also named with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award by Forest Whitaker in 2009 for his work on film and television.

In October 2010, Jones and Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre joined her in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy.

Jones appeared in Driving Miss Daisy in London's West End in November 2011, and he was given an honorary Oscar in front of the audience at the Wyndham Theatre, which was opened by Ben Kingsley on November 12, 2011.

Jones appeared as President Art Hockstader in Gore Vidal's The Best Man on Broadway: In a Revival, he was nominated for a Tony for Best Performance in a Lead Role. Angela Lansbury, John Larroquette (ass candidate William Russell), Candice Bergen, Eric McCormack (as candidate Senator Joseph Cantwell), Jefferson Mays, Michael McKean, and Kerry Butler followed them throughout the play, with direction by Michael Wilson.

Jones appeared in a production of Much Ado About Nothing directed by Mark Rylance at The Old Vic, London, in 2013.

Jones appeared alongside Dame Angela Lansbury in an Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy from February to June 2013.

Jones appeared in the Broadway revival You Can't Take it With You at the Longacre Theatre, Broadway, in 2014. Ashford was given a Tony Award nomination for her work.

Jones premiered in a new revival of The Gin Game opposite Cicely Tyson in the John Golden Theater, where the play had premiered (with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy). The play had a limited run of 16 weeks. It was announced on January 10, 2016.

In 2013–2014, he appeared alongside Malcolm McDowell in a string of Sprint commercials in which the two recited everyday phone and text messaging conversations in a dramatic way. Jones appeared in Agent X, alongside actress Sharon Stone, Jeff Hephner, Jamey Sheridan, and others. The television series aired on TNT from November 8 to December 27, 2015, there was just one season and ten episodes on the program.

Darth Vader's voice actor in Star Wars Rebels and the live action film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) has reprised his role as Darth Vader, as well as a short voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

He reprised his voice role as Mufasa in the CGI remake of The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau, in which he was the first original cast member to do so. Jones' lines stayed largely unchanged from the original film, according to Favreau. "The pleasure of [Jones reprising his role] in leading [the audience] on this journey will be very gratifying." Chiwetel Ejiofor, who played Mufasa's evil brother Scar in the film, said the actor's. It's a once-in-a-lifetime vocal talent."

In Coming 2 America (2021), Jones reprised the role of King Jaffe Joffer (1988), the sequel to Coming to America (1988). In 2022, his voice was used by Respeecher software for Darth Vader in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jones also agreed to a film with Lucasfilm allowing archived recordings of his voice to be used in the future to artificially generate Darth Vader's voice. Jones revealed in September 2022 that he would step down from his role as a voicing Darth Vader for future voice roles in Vain, with AI voice software based on Jones' archived audio.

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