James Earl Jones, the versatile actor who lent his sonorous bass voice to the characters of Darth Vader in Star Wars and Mufasa in The Lion King, died at his home in Pawling, N.Y., on Monday. The award-winning actor played a variety of roles in film and television but perhaps left his greatest mark on the American theater. He was 93 and had suffered from diabetes in recent years.
According to his autobiography, Voices and Silences, Jones’s first encounter with Catholicism occurred during his high school years. “Many of my classmates were Catholics, and I was curious about their religion,” he wrote. He was good at masonry and helped to build a Catholic church in Irons, Michigan. “The priest took an interest in how I felt about Catholicism, and offered to give me some instructions, but I wasn’t ready for that.”
A complex but lasting relationship with his faith
While serving in the military in the 1950s, he found himself attracted to the Catholic chapel services, and to the beauty of its churches and music, and “decided to take my instruction in Catholicism.” At one point, Jones even considered entering the priesthood. He would later tell the New York Times: “The only thing I had that was not geared toward the art of killing was the Catholic Church, to which I had converted in the Army, and the complete works of Shakespeare.”
In Voices and Silences, Jones briefly recounts his often-fraught relationship with his faith, especially with accepting dogmas like the Virgin birth, having to sit through bad homilies, and going to confession. “I occasionally went to confession to say that I had nothing to confess,” he wrote. “I’d stay away for a while and then go back and confess some more.”
In spite of these difficulties, Jones remained attached to the Church and wrote that he would be pleased if his own son became Catholic someday.
(View the Photo Gallery at the end of this article for a look back at the career of James Earl Jones.)
Overcoming a childhood stutter
According to Wikipedia, Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931, to Ruth (née Connolly), 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 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 Dublin, 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. He credits his English teacher, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him end his silence. The teacher urged him to challenge his reluctance to speak through reading poetry aloud to the class.
At the University of Michigan, Jones was initially a pre-med major and joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps. But he began to feel more drawn to acting and so he changed his major to drama.
Jones was commissioned as an officer in the Army in 1953, attended Ranger School and ended up being sent to Colorado to establish a cold-weather training command. He was a first lieutenant at the time of his discharge from the service.
Making Broadway history
The course of Jones’ life would change markedly when he moved to New York. There he studied at the American Theater Wing and worked as a janitor to support himself. His towering physique, soulful eyes, and booming voice made James Earl Jones a dominating stage presence. He made his Broadway debut in 1957, performing in several Shakespeare plays including Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear.
It was his role as Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope that changed Jones’ career. The play, based on the life of boxer Jack Johnson, debuted on Broadway in 1968. “This is a tremendous moment in the theater,” New York Times critic Clive Barnes wrote. “As I was leaving the theater, Mr. Jones was receiving a standing ovation of the kind that makes Broadway history.” Jones won the Tony Award for his performance and went on to reprise the role in the 1970 film adaptation, earning him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
Jones won his second Tony Award in 1987, for his role in August Wilson's Fences. “Mr. Jones's extraordinary acting range matches the heavy demands of a role that is virtually classic in its emotional compass,” the Christian Science Monitor reported at the time.
He was again nominated for a Tony for his roles in On Golden Pond (2005), and The Best Man (2012). Other Broadway performances include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), Driving Miss Daisy (2010–2011), You Can't Take It with You (2014), and The Gin Game (2015–2016). Jones received a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.
A busy and celebrated career
Jones made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove in 1964. He usually assumed supporting roles in films such as Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), and The Hunt for Red October (1990). His deep, expressive voice placed him in great demand as a voice actor – most famously as the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise and as Mufasa in The Lion King (1994).
He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985 and was honored with the National Medal of Arts in 1992, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2009 and the Honorary Academy Award in 2011. Jones delivered the commencement address at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. in May 1993, and was bestowed with an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.
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 a son, Flynn. Hart died from ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016.
A receptionist at St. John the Evangelist in Pawling, N.Y., said Monday that as far as she knew, Jones did not attend the church and that the pastor did not know him.
Although he will always be remembered for the voice of Darth Vader, Jones once said that his greatest honor was doing a recording of the Bible.
