When James Earl Jones died last month, on September 9, a big piece of our hearts died with him. His passing leaves only Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, and Anthony Daniels left among the main cast members of the first movie. Colin Cantwell was not involved in the creation of Darth Vader, of course — he only worked on Star Wars ships — but it’s not hard to imagine the Dark Lord of the Sith standing on the bridge of Colin’s Star Destroyer, surveying the galaxy.

Born on January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi, the deep baritone voice of Darth Vader actually had a stutter since childhood. Jones didn’t let that get in his way, however, and he launched his acting career after a stint in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.

Unsurprisingly, he made his Broadway debut at the age of 26, and he later left an indelible mark on many Shakespeare in the Park audiences, playing prominent roles in Othello, Hamlet, and King Lear. It’s not hard, of course, to imagine him in the role of Othello, a character who also served in the military.

Theater work sustained Jones during the early part of his career, earning him a 1969 Tony Award for his part as a boxer in The Great White Hope. He reprised that role in the 1970 film adaptation, garnering Oscar and Golden Globe nominations in the process. He would later go on to win two more Tony Awards, one in 1987 for his role in Fences and the other a richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017.

Segue to the silver screen and Star Wars

Hollywood beckoned, of course, as it does with so many other talented actors, writers, and directors who find success in theater, and James Earl Jones made his film debut in 1964, playing Lieutenant Lothar Zogg, a B-52 bombardier, in Stanley Kubrick’s classic Dr. Strangelove. (Want to play degrees of separation here? Colin Cantwell also worked with Kubrick, on 2001: A Space Odyssey, thus putting him in close proximity to Jones.)

Parts in other movies soon followed, with an Oscar nomination for his role as Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope, before he stepped into a recording booth for the role that would make him a household name for decades to come.

George Lucas had cast David Prowse as the actor in Darth Vader’s suit, but the bodybuilder’s West Country accent wasn’t quite what the director had in mind for such a malevolent character. You can find some examples of Prowse’s original spoken dialogue online — yes, it sounds muffled coming through the helmet, but it’s not clear that it would have sounded more menacing even if he had dubbed it later.

Enter James Earl Jones, who was able to bring a rich baritone to the role, one edged with enough malice for the character. He dubbed Darth Vader’s lines in the two sequels, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, leaving Prowse to say whatever he wanted on set, as long as Jones’s dubbing would later fit his motions. That’s not to say Prowse was a slouch in the role, of course — as Lucas noted when the actor died, “he made Vader leap off the page and on to the big screen, with an imposing stature and movement performance to match the intensity and undercurrent of Vader’s presence.”¹

Worldwide stardom on stage and screen

Jones originally declined credit for the voice of Darth Vader, viewing his role as “just special effects,” but he later had a change of heart and allowed his name to be placed in the credits of all three original trilogy movies. Star Wars proved to be a major springboard for him in Hollywood, and he went on to play roles in dozens of other movies, culminating in King Jaffe Joffer in Coming to America 2, which was his last part.

Of course, his second-best-known film role is probably that of Mufasa in the 1994 Disney animated hit The Lion King. He reprised the role in a 1998 direct-to-video sequel (you could say those were the precursor to today’s direct-to-streaming movies) and returned to Star Wars as the voice of Darth Vader in Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. He also provided Vader’s voice in the Disneyland Star Tours ride and in the 2016 movie Rogue One, with a turn as Emperor Palpatine impersonating Vader in Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.

Jones also appeared in many TV shows and made-for-TV movies (and, yes, he was the “This is CNN” guy), along with plenty of theatrical productions and a few videogames. He narrated various kinds of videos and even stepped into the recording booth to play a part in the animated Garfield TV show. Mark Evanier, who wrote the show and directed its voice recording sessions, related a wonderful story on his blog about Jones’s expressed desire to be on the show and his joking response, “Well, do you have any samples of your work?” (Luckily, Jones gave the joke a hearty laugh, although he apparently annoyed his agent with his willingness to lend his voice to the show for comparatively little money.)

On September 9, 2024, James Earl Jones passed away at home with his family. He was 93 years old, and he had certainly lived a wonderful life, both onscreen and off. He will be deeply missed by many.

¹ Star Wars Creator George Lucas Releases Statement on Death of Darth Vader Actor David Prowse

* All images used via Wikimedia license: James Earl Jones head shot; James Earl Jones in Othello; fan dressed as Darth Vader