James Earl Jones facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
James Earl Jones
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Jones in 2001
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| Born | January 17, 1931 Arkabutla, Mississippi, U.S.
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| Died | September 9, 2024 (aged 93) Pawling, New York, U.S.
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| Education | University of Michigan (BA) |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1953–2021 |
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Works
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Full list |
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| Children | 1 |
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| Awards | Full list |
James Earl Jones (January 17, 1931 – September 9, 2024) was an American actor known for his film roles and for his work in theater. Jones has been called "one of the greatest actors in American history". He was one of the few performers to achieve the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony).
He voiced such iconic characters as Darth Vader and King Mufasa in The Lion King.
Contents
Early life
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James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931, to Ruth (née Connolly); (1911–1986), a teacher and maid, and Robert Earl Jones (1910–2006), a boxer, butler and chauffeur. His father left the family shortly after James Earl's birth and later became a stage and screen actor in New York and Hollywood. Jones and his father did not get to know each other until the 1950s, when they reconciled. He has said in interviews that his parents were both of mixed African-American, Irish and Native American ancestry.
From the age of five, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Maggie Connolly, on their farm in Jackson, Michigan; they had moved from Mississippi in the Great Migration. Jones found the transition to living with his grandparents in Michigan traumatic and developed a stutter so severe that he refused to speak. "I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school." His English teacher, Donald Crouch, discovered he had a gift for writing poetry and helped him end his silence. Crouch encouraged him to read poetry aloud to the class. That helped him to overcome his disability.
Education
Jones was educated at the Browning School for boys in his high school years and graduated in 1949 as vice president of his class from Dickson Rural Agricultural School (now Brethren High School) in Brethren, Michigan.
He attended the University of Michigan, where he was initially a pre-med major. He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and excelled. He felt comfortable in the military and enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow cadets in the Pershing Rifles Drill Team and Scabbard and Blade Honor Society. During the course of his studies, Jones discovered he was not cut out to be a doctor.
Instead, he focused on drama at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance. After four years of college, Jones graduated from the university in 1955.
Military service
He served in the United States Army during the Korean War. As he waited for his orders, he worked as a part-time stage crew hand at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan, where he had earlier performed.
Jones was commissioned in mid-1953, after the Korean War's end. He attended Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab. Jones was promoted to first lieutenant prior to his discharge.
He moved to New York, where he studied at the American Theatre Wing. He worked as a janitor to support himself.
Career
He debuted on Broadway in 1957 as understudy to Lloyd Richards in the play The Egghead by Molly Kazan. The play ran only 21 performances. Three months later, Jones created the featured role of Edward the butler in Dore Schary's Sunrise at Campobello at the Cort Theatre in January 1958.
Jones has performed in several Shakespeare plays including Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear.
He made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film Dr. Strangelove.
Jones worked steadily in theater winning his first Tony Award in 1968 for his role in The Great White Hope, which he reprised in the 1970 film adaptation earning him Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
He received his second Golden Globe Award nomination for his leading role opposite Diahann Carroll in the 1974 romantic comedy-drama film Claudine. Jones gained international fame for providing the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, beginning with the original 1977 film.
He won his second Tony Award in 1987 for his role in August Wilson's Fences.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Jones appeared in a number of other successful films, including
- Conan the Barbarian (1982),
- Matewan (1987),
- Coming to America (1988),
- Field of Dreams (1989),
- The Hunt for Red October (1990),
- The Sandlot (1993),
- and The Lion King (1994).
During the 21st century, Jones continued working in the theater, starring alongside Phylicia Rashad in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in 2008, and Angela Lansbury in Gore Vidal's The Best Man (2012) on Broadway and in an Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy (2013).
He also appeared in You Can't Take it With You (2014) with Annaleigh Ashford and in The Gin Game (2015–16) alongside Cicely Tyson. Jones reprised his roles in recent Star Wars media, The Lion King (2019) and Coming 2 America (2021).
James Earl Jones quotes
- “One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.”
- “If you live in an oppressive society, you've got to be resilient. You can't let each little thing crush you. You have take every encounter and make yourself larger, rather than allow yourself to be diminished by it.”
- “When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language.”
Personal life
In 1968, Jones married actress and singer Julienne Marie, whom he met while performing as Othello in 1964. They had no children and divorced in 1972. In 1982, he married actress Cecilia Hart, with whom he had one child, son Flynn (born 1982). Hart died from ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016.
In April 2016, Jones spoke publicly for the first time in nearly 20 years about his long-term health challenge with type 2 diabetes. He was diagnosed in the mid-1990s after his doctor noticed he had fallen asleep while exercising at a gym.
Jones was Catholic, having converted during his time in the military.
Death and legacy
Jones died at his home in Pawling, New York, on September 9, 2024, at the age of 93.
Following his death, The New York Times described Jones's career as a "a prodigious body of work" and called him "one of America's most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career".
Interesting facts about James Earl Jones
- Jones' voice has been praised as a "a stirring basso profondo that has lent gravel and gravitas".
- James Earl Jones's cereer on screen and stage spanned six decades.
- In 1969, Jones participated in making test films for the children's education series Sesame Street
- Jones was invited by President Barack Obama to perform Shakespeare at the White House Evening for Poetry in 2009.
- Jones was a longtime spokesman for Bell Atlantic and later Verizon.
- He lent his voice to the opening for NBC's coverage of the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics.
- Jones narrated all 27 books of the New Testament in the audiobook James Earl Jones Reads the Bible.
- In 2009, Jones appeared as a patient in the fourth episode of the sixth season of the medical drama House M.D.
Awards and honors
- Over his career, Jones has won three Tony Awards (out of five nominations), two Primetime Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award.
- In 1977, Jones received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Great American Documents.
- Jones voiced Darth Vader in George Lucas' space opera blockbuster film trilogy.
- He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985.
- Jones was presented with the National Medal of the Arts by President George H. W. Bush in 1992.
- He received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002.
- In 2009, Jones received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.
- He received an Honorary Academy Award on November 12, 2011.
- Jones received an Honorary Doctor of Arts degree from Harvard University on May 25, 2017.
- In 2019, he was honored as a Disney Legend.
- He was honored with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017.
- On September 12, 2022, the Cort Theatre, a Broadway theater in Manhattan, New York City, was renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in his honor.
- In September 2022, Jones announced that he would retire from the role of voicing Darth Vader with future voice roles for Vader being created with AI voice software using archive audio of Jones.
Images for kids
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Jones and Jill Clayburgh in the stage production of "Othello" at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, California on April 9, 1971
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Jones with President George H. W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush in 1992
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Jones with Dame Angela Lansbury in 2013
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See also
In Spanish: James Earl Jones para niños
