In Memoriam: James Earl Jones Portrait by Photographer Joe Arce

Submitted by PatrickMcD on September 21, 2024 - 12:53pm

CHICAGO – On September 9th 2024, the world lost an icon of acting, voice work and pop culture stardom. The great James Earl Jones passed away at age 93, after a career of prominent statute, memorable characters and a voice to a generation through Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Mufasa in “The Lion King” (both versions). Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com took an Exclusive Portrait of Jones in 1993 during a Chicago book tour.

Jones was born in Mississippi, and was raised in Michigan by his maternal grandparents. His estranged father became an film actor, and they reconciled in the 1950s. Jones graduated from the University of Michigan as a drama major, and after a stint in the military made his major Broadway debut in 1958 as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s butler in “Sunrise at Campobello.”

James Earl Jones in Chicago, 1993
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

He shifted to Shakespearian roles thereafter, and gained a reputation as one of the finest interpreters of the Bard in the 1960s. Jones also made a memorable film debut in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” in 1964, and won the Tony for the title role as a boxer patterned after black champ Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope,” a role he repeated in the film version, which earned him an Oscar Nomination for Best Actor.

His Shakespearian stage roles continued throughout the 1970s, as well as TV appearances on “Sesame Street,” “The Guiding Light” and the film “Claudine” (1974). But James Earl Jones’ second act would be his most memorable … the voice of Darth Vader in the 1977 “Star Wars” first film and the subsequent SW film sequels/reboots and TV series to the present day. The current Star Wars producers have preserved his voice in A.I. and he signed a contract shortly before his passing to allow that voice to continue as Darth Vader.

From the 1980s on, Jones would continue a run of memorable stage and screen roles, and became the voice of a news network for his “This is CNN.” He won another Tony for August Wilson’s “Fences,” appeared on stage in “Driving Miss Daisy’ (2010) and scored roles in major film hits like “Conan the Barbarian,” “Coming to America” and “Field of Dreams.” He voiced the title role of Musfasa in Disney Studios animated classic “The Lion King” (1994, and repeated the role in the 2019 remake). He capped his career as Darth Vader in the “Stars Wars” movie/TV reboots (2016’s “Rogue One,” for example) and a coda as King Jaffe Jofer in the sequel “Coming 2 America” (2021).

Jones was married twice. He is survived by his son Flynn. He passed away of natural causes in Pawling, New York, north of NYC. The Hollywood Reporter described him as “one the most admired American actors of all time.”

Source material from Wikipedia.com. James Earl Jones, 1931-2024.