The Incomparable James Earl Jones passes at 93: (1931-2024)
This is CNN.
People will come Ray, people will most definitely, come.
Luke, I am your father.
That you can likely hear his stirring “basso profondo” even before we reveal the name of the celebrated actor who spoke these lines, is evidence of the impact of an extraordinary career and a voice that became as recognizable as his many noteworthy performances on stage and screen. We are talking about James Earl Jones, of course, the African American actor whose storied career spanned over sixty years. Jones passed away on September 9th, 2024 at the age of 93 in his home in Pawling, New York, surrounded by loved ones.
As with another celebrated and pathbreaking EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) achiever – Harry Belafonte – Jones’ life was filled with firsts and extraordinary accomplishments in spite of the harrowing and deeply entrenched racism of American society-at-large and Hollywood in particular. Jones was born in 1931 in Mississippi to Ruth Connolly (a teacher and domestic) and Robert Earl Jones (a boxer, butler, chauffeur, and later, actor), both of mixed African American, Irish, and indigenous descent. Living from the age of five with his maternal grandparents who had relocated to Michigan during The Great Migration which saw some six million African Americans flee the southern states for better lives in the American north, a traumatized young James (who would go on to become one of the most celebrated voices of the twentieth and twenty first centuries), ironically developed a stutter and at times refused to speak at all. The suffering was profound with Jones later describing himself as mute from the ages of 8 through 14. He would later credit his English teach, Donald Crouch, for helping him find his voice through the love of poetry.
After graduating from high school, he enrolled at the University of Michigan before enlisting in the military and discovered acting before serving in the Korean War. Indeed, his initial stage experience came from his work at the Ransdell Theatre in Michigan while enlisted. After his discharge he moved to New York City studying at the American Theatre Wing while supporting himself through janitorial work. To say that he learned the inner workings of the theatre from the ground up, is an understatement. At times he worked as a stage carpenter, stage manager, and of course, an actor. In the 1950s he appeared on stage and radio, making his Broadway debut in 1957 as an understudy in Molly Kazan’s The Egghead.
But it was the 1960s that saw Jones’ stage career flourish and his reputation as an acclaimed Shakespearean actor cemented with successive roles in Othello, King Lear, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to name a few. But if the 1950s and 60s were defined by his rise in theatre, the 1970s marked his breakout work on the Hollywood screen. As the decade opened, Jones’ commanding performance (at once charming, gritty, and full of bravado) as the celebrated African American boxer Jack Johnson in The Great White Hope (1970), earned him a Best Actor Oscar nomination. He became only the second African American man, after Sidney Poitier, to garner this recognition. Later in 1977, he was a part of the cast of the watershed TV series Roots that transformed popular understandings of Transatlantic Slavery.
Jones defied stereotypes and typecasting shining in romantic roles like Claudine (1974), opposite Diahann Carroll, comedies like Coming to America (1988) with Eddie Murphy, action-thrillers like The Hunt for Red October (1990) and Patriot Games (1992), dramas like Cry, the Beloved Country (1995), and animated features like Disney’s The Lion King (1994) in which he lent his superlative voice to the majestic character Mufasa. He also moved nimbly between the big screen and television (before it was cool, easy, or normal to do so) with appearances on Frasier, Law & Order, The Big Bang Theory, Will & Grace, and Two and Half Men, and voice over work on The Simpsons.
Among his many honours were two primetime Emmys (both 1991), a National Medal of the Arts (1992), a Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award (2009), and three NAACP Image Awards (1975, 1992, 2020). Jones was also a Kennedy Center Honoree.
The words “slowing down” seemed not to be in his vocabulary. At a time of life when Jones could have been, justifiably, basking in the glow of his many well-deserved accolades, he continued to work, especially in the theatre tackling roles in Driving Miss Daisy (2010), Much Ado about Nothing (2013), You can’t take it with you (2014), and The Gin Game (2015).
Jones brought gravitas and dignity to his roles at a time when Hollywood and society-at-large, were all too comfortable with stereotyping black men as bumbling, sleepy-eyed fools, or insatiable, predatory criminals. His rise from poverty as a child in Mississippi, to the inner circles of Hollywood and Broadway, meant having the courage and drive to overcome childhood trauma and a debilitating disability. That he became the voice of a respected international news organization like CNN and a blockbuster sci-fi franchise like Star Wars, speaks volumes about the dignity he exuded and the authority and respect he commanded. His example of resilience and poise will live on alongside his storied body of work.