Legendary actor James Earl Jones dies at 93
Sep 9, 2024, 3:45 PM | Updated: 5:25 pm
(Photo by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions)
Legendary actor James Earl Jones, known for his deep thunderous voice has passed away at the age of 93 years old. Jones is most famously known as the voice of Darth Vader as well as Mufasa from Disney’s The Lion King.
Jones was with family when he died, according to his representative. No cause of death was shared.
Jones had a distinguished career that spanned some 60 years and took him from a small-town theater in northern Michigan to the highest reaches of Hollywood, where he appeared in dozens of movies and TV series. He belonged to the small, distinguished group of EGOT actors who received Tony, Emmy, Grammy and Academy awards. He received an honorary Oscar in 2011 citing “his legacy of consistent excellence and uncommon versatility.”
The actor voiced one of the most famous villains in movie history with Darth Vader, but he and George Lucas had disagreements about how he should voice Vader. “I wanted to make Darth Vader more interesting, more subtle, more psychologically oriented,” said Jones. Lucas then said, ‘No, no … you’ve got to keep his voice on a very narrow band of inflection, ‘cause he ain’t human.” Everyone knows his famous line, “No, I am your father.”
Actor Mark Hamill aka Luke Skywalker posted this on “X”. “RIP DAD”
Jones understood the power of speech. He once said, “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can’t utter. “
Read more about the history of acting legend James Earl Jones here
Read how James Earl Jones overcame a stammer in his speech and went on to become one of the most famous actors of all time.
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