- Born
- Died
- Nicknames
- Todd
- Jimmy
- Jim
- Height6′ 1½″ (1.87 m)
- Widely regarded as the one of greatest stage and screen actors both in his native USA and internationally, James Earl Jones was born on January 17, 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi. At an early age, he started to take dramatic lessons to calm himself down. It appeared to work as he has since starred in many films over a 40-year period, beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). For several movie fans, he is probably best known for his role as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy (due to his contribution for the voice of the role, as the man in the Darth Vader suit was David Prowse, whose voice was dubbed because of his British West Country accent). In his brilliant course of memorable performances, among others, he has also appeared on the animated series The Simpsons (1989) three times and played Mufasa both in The Lion King (1994) and The Lion King (2019), while he returned too as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Jadidi
- SpousesCecilia Hart(March 15, 1982 - October 16, 2016) (her death, 1 child)Julienne Marie(January 2, 1968 - July 1972) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsRuth Connolly
- RelativesMatthew Earl Jones(Sibling)
- Famous for his deep authoritative voice, used most famously for impressive roles as leaders like Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and Mufasa both in The Lion King (1994) and The Lion King (2019).
- Unmistakeable contagious laugh.
- Dark navy-blue eyes.
- He used to use "Darth Vader" as his handle on his CB radio but stopped when it was frightening people.
- According to Jones, when George Lucas was trying to cast the voice of Darth Vader, his immediate idea was to cast Orson Welles. However, he felt that Welles was too well-known for the role. So instead, he looked for an actor with a deep voice, "like Orson Welles", which is how he got the role.
- Known for his humility, he declined to have his name appear on the credits of both Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), claiming that he felt his contribution wasn't significant enough to warrant a credit. He did agree to have his name appear on the credits of Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983).
- Is a United States Army veteran and former member of the 75th Rangers Regiment.
- Had a stuttering problem as a child and spoke very little; still struggles with the problem and says he has to think about what he says carefully before saying it (impressive, since he is known widely for his voice).
- [from "James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences" page 360]: My voice is for hire. My endorsement is not for hire. I will do a voice-over, but I cannot endorse without making a different kind of commitment. My politics are very personal and subjective.
- If you take a villain like Thulsa Doom or Darth Vader and have fun with it, that destroys the credibility of the character.
- When I read that part in the script where it said, "Luke, I am your father", I thought, "He's lying. I have to see how they carry this lie out.".
- [on the Iraq war]: All people have to be prepared. If we are going to be the police, we also have to be the guardians. We can no longer play games. I was not against the war in Bosnia. I was against it taking so long. I was not against the war in Somalia. Again, it took too long, and we didn't finish the job. We should've stayed and finished the job. About this pending war, I just think we should've finished that war the first time.
- [on the terrible stutter he suffered from as a young man]: One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.
- Coming to America (1988) - $900,000
- Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) - $9,000
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