James Earl Joneswho overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become an icon of stage and screen, lending his deep, commanding voice to CNN, “The Lion King” and Darth Vader, has died. He was 93. His agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed that Jones died Monday morning at his home in New York’s Hudson Valley region. The cause was not immediately known. Jones, a comedy pioneer who in 1965 became one of the first African-American actors to play a permanent role on a daytime drama (“As the World Turns”) and worked into his 80s, won two Emmy Awards, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts and the Kennedy Center Honors. He also received an honorary Academy Award and a special Tony for his career. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor. He was elegant in his later years, with a wry sense of humor and a work ethic. In 2015, he arrived at rehearsals for a Broadway production of “The Gin Game” with the play memorized and notebooks filled with comments from the creative team. He said he was always in service to his work. The story continues below the advertisement “We’ve always had a need to tell stories,” he told The Associated Press. “I think it first happened around a campfire, when a man came home and told his family he got the bear, but not the bear.” Jones has created memorable film roles, including the reclusive writer who returns to the spotlight in “Field of Dreams,” boxer Jack Johnson in the stage and screen hit “The Great White Hope,” writer Alex Haley in “Roots: The Next Generation” and a South African minister in “Cry, the Beloved Country.” He was also an in-demand voice actor, voicing the villainous Darth Vader (“No, I am your father,” often misnamed “Luke, I am your father”) and the benevolent dignity of King Mufasa in the 1994 and 2019 versions of Disney’s “The Lion King” and announcing “This is CNN” during radio breaks. He won a Grammy in 1977 for his performance in the audiobook “Great American Documents.” “If you were an actor or aspiring to be an actor, if you were rushing out into the streets looking for work, one of the criteria we always had was to be a James Earl Jones,” Samuel L. Jackson once said. FILE – James Earl Jones poses with his honorary Oscar during the 84th Academy Awards, Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. Jones, who overcame racial prejudice and a severe stutter to become a celebrated icon of stage and screen, died at age 93 on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File). James Earl Jones accepts the Life Achievement Award at the 15th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Sunday, Jan. 25, 2009, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) Actor James Earl Jones, right, and director George Lucas arrive at the 25th Anniversary Princess Grace Awards Gala at Sotheby’s, Thursday, Oct. 25, 2007, in New York. (AP Photo/Peter Kramer) His other film credits include “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Greatest” (with Muhammad Ali), “Conan the Barbarian,” “Three Fugitives” and his role as an admiral in three successful Tom Clancy adaptations – “The Hunt for Red October,” “Homeland Games” and “Clear and Present Danger.” In a rare romantic comedy, “Claudine,” Jones had an onscreen romance with Diahann Carroll. The story continues below the advertisement LeVar Burton, who starred alongside Jones in the TV movie “Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones,” paid tribute on X, writing, “There will never be another special combination of graces like this.” Receive daily national news Get the day’s top political, business and current affairs news delivered to your inbox once a day. Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958 in Sunrise at Campobello and won two Tony Awards for The Great White Hope (1969) and Fences (1987). He was also nominated for On Golden Pond (2005) and Gore Vidal’s The Best Man (2012). He was known for his mastery of Shakespeare and Athol Fugard. More recent Broadway credits include Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Chauffeured Miss Daisy, The Iceman Cometh, and You Can’t Take It with You. Learn more about entertainment More videos A rising stage and television actor, he has appeared with the New York Shakespeare Festival Theater in “Othello,” “Macbeth” and “King Lear” as well as in off-Broadway plays. Jones was born by the light of an oil lamp in a shack in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931. His father, Robert Earl Jones, had abandoned his wife before the baby’s arrival to pursue a life as a boxer and, later, an actor. At the age of 6, Jones was taken by his mother to her parents’ farm near Manistee, Michigan. His grandparents adopted the boy and raised him. “A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” Jones wrote in his autobiography, “Voices and Silences.” “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me, it was heartbreaking, and soon afterward I began to stutter.” The story continues below the advertisement Too embarrassed to speak, he remained virtually mute for years, communicating with teachers and classmates through handwritten notes. An understanding high school teacher, Donald Crouch, learned that the boy wrote poetry and demanded that Jones read one of his poems aloud in class. He did so without fail. Current trend The Montreal melon, which was thought to have almost disappeared, is making a long-awaited comeback Man flees country after allegedly pouring hot coffee on baby, Australian police say The teacher and student worked together to get the boy to speak normally. “I couldn’t get enough of talking, debating, making speeches, acting,” he recalls in his book. At the University of Michigan, he failed a medical school exam and turned to theater, also playing four seasons of basketball. He served in the Army from 1953 to 1955. In New York, he moved in with his father and enrolled…
