James Earl Jones (1931-2024)

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James Earl Jones (courtesy of Stuart Crawford on Flickr)

The actor with one of the most famous voices in film, James Earl Jones, has died aged 93. His illustrious career, which bagged him 2 Emmies, 3 Tony Awards and an honorary Oscar, was built upon the fact that he stammered.

Born in Mississippi in 1931, Jones's stammer started in early childhood. Although initially becoming non-verbal he developed a love of words and started writing. He told the Daily Mail in 2020 of his stammer:

You become a good listener... You appreciate the written word. You appreciate the sound. I did communicate with the animals quite freely. They don't care how you sound, they just want to hear your voice.

When he was introduced to poetry, thanks to a nurturing high school English teacher, Jones found ways to use his voice that would help with the difficulties of talking. "I think that's what got me into a feeling for reading dramatic interpretations," he said on The Dick Cavett Show. It built his confidence and set him on a new course in life.

From there, he developed a love of acting and got his first Broadway role in 1958, in the play Sunrise at Campobello. He continued treading the boards, becoming one of the most celebrated Shakespearian actors in America, before turning his attention to the big screen when he made his film debut in 1964, in Stanley Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove. In 1970 he landed his first leading role, in The Great White Hope, for which he was recognised with an Academy Award nomination, the second only black actor after Sidney Poitier to receive one.

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Jones went on to have starring roles in a string of films including Coming to America and Conan the Barbarian. But it is thanks to his role in Star Wars, in 1977, that Jones became a household name playing the voice of one the most iconic villains in film history, Darth Vader — a part which was uncredited at the time of release. That and of course Mufasa in 1994's The Lion King.

Jones was always open about stammering, and in an interview with the American Academy of Achievement, he said: 

I'm still a stutterer. Sometimes I guess our vocabulary might be a little larger than it would ordinarily have been, because we have to find the word we won't trip on, or that begins with the right consonant.

His work for stage and screen was recognised firstly in 2011, when he received an honorary Academy Award, and in 2017 when he was honoured with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement. In March 2022, the Cort Theatre on Broadway was renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in his honour. He passed away on 9^th September 2024 surrounded by his family.

It will be for his voice that James Earl Jones will be most remembered. That booming, emotive, rich and powerful voice.  For other people around the world who stammer too, and generations more to come, not least thanks to Star Wars and The Lion King, he remains an inspiration and leaves an enduring legacy.

Read about more Influential People Who Stammer.