American actor James Earl Jones died on Tuesday (9), aged 93. His most striking feature was his deep, gravelly voice, immortalized in the iconic villain Darth Vader, from the franchise. Star Wars. The generation that grew up in the 1990s would know him for lending the voice to the lion Mufasa, from the classic animation The Lion King1994.
Earl Jones’ death was confirmed by his agent, Barry McPherson, according to Reuters. The actor had been suffering from diabetes for several years and died at home, surrounded by his family. The cause of death, however, was not disclosed.
Career
Owner of one of the most iconic voices in Hollywood, James Earl Jones had to deal with a severe stutter at a very early age, which led him to stop speaking. “One of the hardest things in life is to have words in your heart that you can’t say,” he said in an interview.
He remained mostly silent for about ten years until a high school teacher helped him overcome his stutter by reciting a poem in class. He began to control his speech impediment and became interested in acting.
He started out in theater and his first big role was in the play The Great White Hope (The Great White Hope, in free translation), playing a character based on the black boxer and heavyweight champion Jack Johnson. The play examined racism through the lens of the world of boxing and Earl Jones’ performance was widely praised by critics at the time.
In addition to the roles in The Lion King and Star Warsa franchise that began in 1977 and has produced new films to this day, he is also known in Brazil for his role as King Jaffe in Coming to America. In the 1988 film, he plays the father of Eddie Murphy’s character Akeem. He has also acted in films such as Conan the Barbarian (1982); The Field of Dreams (1989) and Hunt for Red October (1990).
With almost 200 television roles, his most recent roles were in sequels to franchises that marked his career. He returned to voice Mufasa in 2019, in a more realistic version of The Lion King. In 2021, he returned to play King Jaffe in Coming 2 America and lent his voice to Darth Vader one last time in the miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobiderived from the Star Wars film franchise.
* with information from Reuters
