James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931,[citation needed] 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.[9] 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.[10][11]
From the age of five, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Maggie Connolly,[citation needed] on their farm in Jackson, Michigan; they had moved from Mississippi in the Great Migration.[12] 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."[12] He credits his English teacher, Donald Crouch, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him end his silence.[9] Crouch urged him to challenge his reluctance to speak through reading poetry aloud to the class.[13][14]
In 1949, Jones graduated from Dickson Rural Agricultural School[15] (now Brethren High School) in Brethren, Michigan, where he served as vice president of his class.[16] He attended the University of Michigan, where he was initially a pre-medmajor.[9] 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.[17] During the course of his studies, Jones discovered he was not cut out to be a physician.[citation needed]
Instead, he focused on drama at the University of Michigan 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 with a Bachelor of Arts with a major in drama.[18][19]
Military service
With the war intensifying in Korea, Jones expected to be deployed as soon as he received his commission as a second lieutenant. As he waited for his orders, he worked on the stage crew and acted at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan.[20] Jones was commissioned in mid-1953, after the Korean War's end, and reported to Fort Moore to attend the Infantry Officers Basic Course. He attended Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab. Jones was assigned to Headquarter and Headquarters Company, 38th Regimental Combat Team.[21] He was initially to report to Fort Leonard Wood, but his unit was instead sent to establish a cold-weather training command at the former Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado. His battalion became a training unit in the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains. Jones was promoted to first lieutenant prior to his discharge.[22]
Jones moved to New York, where he studied at the American Theatre Wing and worked as a janitor to support himself.[23][24]
Jones began his acting career at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. In 1953, he was a stage carpenter, and between 1955 and 1957, he acted and was a stage manager. In his first acting season at the Ramsdell, he portrayed Othello.[26] His early career also included an appearance in the ABC radio anthology series Theatre-Five.[27] In 1957, he made his Broadway debut as understudy to Lloyd Richards in the short-lived play The Egghead by Molly Kazan.[28] The play ran only 21 performances,[29] however three months later, Jones created the featured role of Edward the butler in Dore Schary's Sunrise at Campobello at the Cort Theatre in January 1958.[30]
Jones performs Othello's Act I, scene III monolog from Shakespeare's Othello at the White House Evening of Poetry, Music, and the Spoken Word on May 12, 2009.
In 1969, Jones participated in making test films for the children's education series Sesame Street; these shorts, combined with animated segments, were shown to groups of children to gauge the effectiveness of the then-groundbreaking Sesame Street format. As cited by production notes included in the DVD release Sesame Street: Old School 1969–1974, the short that had the greatest impact with test audiences was one showing bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten. This and other segments featuring Jones were eventually aired as part of the Sesame Street series itself when it debuted later in 1969 and Jones is often cited as the first celebrity guest on that series, although a segment with Carol Burnett was the first to actually be broadcast.[9] He also appeared on the soap opera Guiding Light.
In 1970, Jones reunited with Jane Alexander in the film adaptation of The Great White Hope. This would be Jones' first leading film role. Jones portrayed boxer Jack Johnson, a role he had previously originated on stage. His performance was acclaimed by critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He was the second African-American male performer after Sidney Poitier to be nominated for this award.[9]Variety described his performance declaring, "Jones' recreation of his stage role is an eye-riveting experience. The towering rages and unrestrained joys of which his character was capable are portrayed larger than life."[33] In The Man (1972), Jones starred as a senator who unexpectedly becomes the first African-American president of the United States. The film also starred Martin Balsam and Burgess Meredith.
1973–1983: Rise to prominence
In 1974, 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, focusing on systemic racial disparities black families face. It was one of the first major films to tackle themes such as welfare, economic inequality, and the typical marriage of men and women in the African American community during the 1970s. Jones and Carroll received widespread critical acclaim and Golden Globe nominations for their performances. Carroll was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.
When Linda Blair did the girl in The Exorcist, they hired Mercedes McCambridge to do the voice of the devil coming out of her. And there was controversy as to whether Mercedes should get credit. I was one who thought no, she was just special effects. So when it came to Darth Vader, I said, no, I'm just special effects. But it became so identified that by the third one, I thought, OK I'll let them put my name on it.[35]
In 1977, Jones also received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Great American Documents. In late 1979, Jones appeared on the short-lived CBS police drama Paris, which was notable as the first program on which Steven Bochco served as executive producer. Jones also starred that year in the critically acclaimed TV mini-series sequel Roots: The Next Generations as the older version of author Alex Haley.[9]
He has played lead characters on television in three series. The second show aired on ABC between 1990 and 1992, the first season being titled Gabriel's Fire and the second (after a format revision) Pros and Cons. In both formats of that show, Jones played a former policeman wrongly convicted of murder who, upon his release from prison, became a private eye. In 1995, Jones starred in Under One Roof as Neb Langston, a widowed African-American police officer sharing his home in Seattle with his daughter, his married son with his children, and Neb's newly adopted son. The show was a mid-season replacement and lasted only six weeks, but earned him another Emmy nomination. He also portrayed Thad Green on "Mathnet", a parody of Dragnet that appeared in the PBS program Square One Television. In 1998, Jones starred in the widely acclaimed syndicated program An American Moment (created by James R. Kirk and Ninth Wave Productions). Jones took over the role left by Charles Kuralt, upon Kuralt's death.
He also has done the CNN tagline, "This is CNN", as well as "This is CNN International", and the opening for CNN's morning show New Day. Jones was also a longtime spokesman for Bell Atlantic and later Verizon and DirecTV. He also lent his voice to the opening for NBC's coverage of the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics; "the Big PI in the Sky" (God) in the computer game Under a Killing Moon; a Claymation film, The Creation; and several other guest spots on The Simpsons. Jones narrated all 27 books of the New Testament in the audiobook James Earl Jones Reads the Bible.[45] Although uncredited, Jones' voice is possibly heard as Darth Vader at the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). When specifically asked whether he had supplied the voice, possibly from a previous recording, Jones told Newsday: "You'd have to ask Lucas about that. I don't know."[35] On April 7, 2005, Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn.[9] In February 2008, he starred 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 reprised the role of Big Daddy in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London's West End. This production also stars Sanaa Lathan as Maggie, Phylicia Rashad as Big Mamma, and Adrian Lester as Brick. In 2009, Jones appeared as a patient in the fourth episode of the sixth season of the medical drama House M.D. Also in 2009, for his work on film and television, Jones was presented with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award by Forest Whitaker.
In 2013–2014, he appeared alongside Malcolm McDowell in a series of commercials for Sprint in which the two dramatically recited mundane phone and text-message conversations.[53][54] In 2015, Jones starred as the Chief Justice Caleb Thorne in the American drama series Agent X alongside actress Sharon Stone, Jeff Hephner, Jamey Sheridan, and others. The television series was aired by TNT from November 8 to December 27, 2015, running only one season and 10 episodes. Jones officially reprised his voice role of Darth Vader for the character's appearances in the animated TV series Star Wars Rebels[55][56] and the live-action film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016),[57][58] as well as for a three-word cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).[59]
In 2019, he reprised his voice role of Mufasa for the CGI remake of The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau, in which he was the only original cast member to do so.[60][61] According to Favreau, Jones' lines remained mostly the same from the original film.[62][63]Chiwetel Ejiofor, who voiced Mufasa's evil brother Scar in the remake, said that "the comfort of [Jones reprising his role] is going to be very rewarding in taking [the audience] on this journey again. It's a once-in-a-generation vocal quality."[62] Jones reprised the role of King Jaffe Joffer in Coming 2 America (2021), the sequel to Coming to America (1988).[64] In 2022, his voice was used via Respeecher software for Darth Vader in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.[65] During production, Jones signed a deal with Lucasfilm authorizing archival recordings of his voice to be used in the future to artificially generate the voice of Darth Vader.[66] In September 2022, Jones announced that he would retire from the role of voicing Darth Vader with future voice roles for Vader being created with AI voice software using archive audio of Jones.[67]
Personal life
In 1968, Jones married actress and singer Julienne Marie, whom he met while performing as Othello in 1964.[68] They had no children and divorced in 1972.[69] In 1982, he married actress Cecilia Hart, with whom he had a son, Flynn.[70][71] Hart died from ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016.[72]
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.[73]
Jones is Catholic, having converted during his time in the military.[74]
Jones has had an extensive career in film, television, and theater. He started out in film by appearing in the 1964 political satire film Dr. Strangelove as Lt. Lothar Zogg. He then went on to star in the 1970 film The Great White Hope as Jack Jefferson, a role he first played in the Broadway production of the same name.
Jones' television work includes playing Woodrow Paris in the series Paris between 1979 and 1980. He voiced various characters on the animated series The Simpsons in three separate seasons (1990, 1994, 1998).
^ abcdefgBandler, Michael J. (March 2008). "This is James Earl Jones". NWA World Traveler. Northwest Airlines. Archived from the original on March 20, 2008. Retrieved April 3, 2008.
^Davies-Cole, Andrew (February 18, 2010). "The daddy of them all". Herald Scotland. Archived from the original on August 11, 2011. Retrieved November 5, 2011.
^Luke, Bob (January 14, 2016). Integrating the Orioles: Baseball and Race in Baltimore. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, Inc. ISBN978-1-4766-6212-1.
^Drayer, Shannon (June 3, 2013). "Audio treasure: Dave Niehaus reads 'Casey at the Bat'". KTTH / 710 ESPN Seattle. Archived from the original on September 20, 2014. Retrieved January 31, 2015. James Earl Jones more than did the piece justice in a recording with the Cincinnati Pops in 1996...
^"Jones, James Earl". Encyclopedia of African American History: 5-Volume Set. Oxford University Press. 2009. pp. 53–54. ISBN9780195167795. Archived from the original on February 3, 2023. Retrieved January 2, 2024.
^"2004 Summit Highlights Photo". 2004. Archived from the original on September 17, 2020. Retrieved December 8, 2020. Awards Council member and actor James Earl Jones presents the Academy's Golden Plate Award to Congressman John Lewis during the introductory evening of the 2004 International Achievement Summit in Chicago, Illinois.