James Earl Jones, the renowned actor best recognised for his countless film roles and his powerful voice as Darth Vader in the "Star Wars" trilogy, has passed away, an agent for the actor confirmed to ABC News. His age was ninety-three. In the company of his family, Jones passed away on Monday morning at his Dutchess County, New York, home, according to long-time agent Barry McPherson.
The thespian, who performed for almost 60 years and earned three Tony Awards—including a lifetime honour in 2017—two Emmys, a Grammy, and the renowned villain Darth Vader with his powerful, deep voice. 2011 saw him honoured for his lifetime accomplishments at the Academy Awards. Born in Mississippi in 1931, Jones notoriously struggled with a severe stammer as a young boy.
He explained to PBS in 2014 how severe the condition was at the time: "People would come to the house and there'd be introductions made and I couldn't introduce myself." Jones claimed he gained the ability to remain silent for extended periods of time. "Silence isn't always a negative thing, so sometimes I thought it was really good. It's beneficial to hear. And I got better at listening," Jones said to PBS.
After a high school instructor employed poetry to help Jones speak more clearly, it was the stammer that inspired Jones to pursue a career in acting. Jones had his sights set on Broadway for his theatrical and artistic career following his time in college, the Army, and the Korean War. Jones was a mainstay on Broadway in the 1950s and 1960s. His work, which included "On Golden Pond" and "The Best Man," was nominated for four Tony Awards; it was the winner of "The Great White Hope" in 1969 and "Fences" in 1987.
Jones later earned his first Oscar nod in the 1960s for his work on "
East Side/West Side." He picked up both his Primetime Emmy wins in 1991, for best supporting actor in the miniseries "Heat Wave" and best actor for the series "Gabriel's Fire." He also won a Daytime Emmy for the children's special "Summer's End" in 2000.
Jones later earned his first Oscar nod, adapting "The Great White Hope" to the silver screen in 1970, playing boxer Jack Jefferson. He was just the second Black actor after Sidney Poitier, who was nominated in 1958 and 1963, to be recognized by the academy with a nomination. For the better part of the 1970s, Jones continued to juggle his work on stage, TV, and film. Then, in 1977, he was cast as the voice of a new villain, Darth Vader, in the space saga, "Star Wars: A New Hope."
Jones was always humble about being the voice of such an iconic foe. "I'm simply special effects," he told the American Film Institute in 2009 about voicing a character who was physically played by someone else. "George [Lucas] wanted, pardon the expression, so he hired a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters. That's the voice, that's me. I lucked out. From all these so-called handicaps, I lucked out to get a job that paid me $7,000, and I thought that was good money."
In a 2004 documentary titled "Star Wars: Empire of Dreams," Jones spoke about when he first found out that Vader, the film trilogy's main villain, would reveal that he was the long-lost father of Skywalker, the primary hero.
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