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Adam McKay is applauding just how “radical” Jon M. Chu’s musical adaptation “Wicked” is.

The director tweeted that “Wicked,” which is only one half of Chu’s two-part vision, is one of the biggest swings in Hollywood. McKay explained that “Wicked” is “nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, [and] propaganda,” which feels especially poignant in America today.

“On a pure storytelling level, ‘Wicked Part 1’ is right up there as one of the most radical big studio Hollywood movies ever made,” McKay wrote. “I know ‘Part 2’ swings back to the center a bit but ‘Part 1’ is nakedly about radicalization in the face of careerism, fascism, [and] propaganda.”

He continued, “What’s really striking about ‘Wicked Part 1’ is that it’s coming out Now when America has never been more right wing and propagandized. And yes, I know the theatrical production and the book are much older so part of...

Screenis listing the 2024 release dates for films in the UK and Ireland in the calendar below.

For distributors who wish to add/amend a date on the calendar, please get in touch withScreenhere.Screenis also running a calendar for festival and market dates throughout 2025here.

January

Wednesday, January 1

Nosferatu(Universal),2073(Altitude),Vanangaan(DJ Tech),Game Changer(Dreamz),We Live In Time(Studiocanal)

Friday, January 3

Nickel Boys(Curzon),Rocco And His Brothers(BFI),Diabel(Magnetes)

Wednesday, January 8

A Real Pain(Disney)

Friday, January 10

Babygirl(Efd),The Girl With The Needle(Mubi),Maria(Studiocanal),The Damned(Vertical/Miracle),It’s Raining Men...

Politics and the apocalypse collide in Rumours – a horror satire that threatens to steal Megalopolis’ crown as 2024’s most eccentric movie.

When Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis came out earlier this year, opinions were somewhat divided as to whether it was a grand folly, a visionary masterpiece, a piece of demented high camp, or a mixture of all of these.

What most could agree on was that there was nothing else quite like it in 2024’s line-up of movies, whether it was in its unnatural dialogue and bizarre character names (Aubrey Plaza as financial TV reporter Wow Platinum) or its incredibly uneven visuals, which veered from the captivatingly imaginative to the embarrassingly kitsch.

For better or worse, Coppola had managed to finally achieve his goal of creating a vision of the USA as a late Roman empire in danger of tipping over into facism. Which, as 2024 nears its end, now...

Steve Coogan stars in Armando Iannucci’s West End adaptation of Dr Strangelove, which will be broadcast in cinemas next year.

“You can’t fight in here, this is the War Room!” is one of the most iconic quotes from Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 masterpiece Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying About The Bomb. Starring Peter Sellers in multiple roles, it told the story of a rogue US general who triggers a nuclear crisis.

Kubrick directed the film from a screenplay he co-wrote with Terry Southern and Peter George.

Satirist Armando Iannucci, who himself co-wrote and directed a film about useless politicians inadvertently triggering a war, the wonderful In The Loop, itself a spin-off from acerbic sitcom The Thick Of It, has adapted the film for the stage with Sean Foley, who also directed the show.

Steve Coogan takes on the daunting task of following in Sellers’ footsteps,...

The National Theatre Live’s stage adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove” is headed to global cinema screens on March 27, 2025, following its London West End run.

The production features Steve Coogan, a seven-time BAFTA winner, performing multiple roles including Dr. Strangelove, President Merkin Muffley, Group Captain Lionel Mandrake and Major T.J. Kong.

The theatrical version of Kubrick’s 1964 nuclear satire comes from the creative team of Emmy winner Armando Iannucci and Olivier Award recipient Sean Foley. The production marks a significant reimagining of the comedy masterpiece about a rogue U.S. General who triggers a nuclear attack.

Currently playing at London’s Noël Coward Theatre through Jan. 25, 2025, the production will transfer to Dublin’s Bord Gáis Energy Theatre for a limited engagement from Feb. 5-22, 2025. The ensemble cast features Giles Terera as General Buck Turgisdon, John Hopkins as General Jack D. Ripper, Oliver Alvin-Wilson as Jefferson, and Ben Turner as Colonel Bat Guano.

In the mid-1980s, Whoopi Goldberg exploded onto the entertainment scene via her self-titled, one-woman Broadway show, which was considered so electric and essential that HBO filmed a performance and aired it within a year of its stage premiere. At this point, Goldberg was a force of nature, a comedic dynamo capable of zipping from one deep-tissue character study to another with the ease of Richard Pryor. Meanwhile, her big, brilliant brain seemed to run a mile a minute, like the one possessed by her friend and colleague Robin Williams. Whoopi, it seemed, could do anything. Movie stardom seemed a cinch.

It was. Kind of. After making her dramatic debut in Steven Spielberg's "The Color Purple," she scored a smallish hit with Penny Marshall's comedy thriller "Jumpin' Jack Flash." That led to two more star vehicles in the 1987 duo of "Burglar" and "Fatal Beauty," but they didn't take.

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A movie doesn't have to be successful to be a classic. Take "Heathers" — written by Daniel Waters, directed by Michael Lehmann, starring Winona Ryder.

Ryder, fresh off "Beetlejuice," played another death-obsessed teenager. Unlike gothic outsider Lydia Deetz, though, Veronica Sawyer from "Heathers" is in the in-crowd. She hangs out with Westerburg High School's trio of mean girls, all named Heather, but feels disillusioned. So her new bad boy lover J.D. (Christian Slater) convinces her to pull a lethal prank on queen bee Heather Chandler (Kim Walker).

"Heathers" is the template for other biting black comedy teen movies, from "Mean Girls" to "Jennifer's Body." It even inspired a "Heathers" musical! But it only made $1.1 million on a $3 million budget.

Entertainment Weekly's oral history of "Heathers" (published in 2014 for its 25th anniversary) has some explanations for why it flopped. Distributor New World Pictures...

In 1949, Alec Guinness dazzled critics and paying audiences alike by playing eight members, male and female, of the D'Ascoyne family in the deliciously dark comedy "Kind Hearts and Coronets." There weren't many actors alive cocky enough to attempt such a thing, let alone pull it off, so you'd think the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would go gaga for the actor's brazen feat and hand him the Best Actor Oscar before the ceremony began. Amazingly, he didn't even receive a nomination (though John Wayne snared his first for basically playing John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima").

How did Guinness not even earn the honor of an Oscar nod? He made one critical mistake: he gave his bravura performance in a comedy.

Of the 96 films that have won the Academy Award for Best Picture, only 15 could be called comedies (and I'm being super charitable with movies like "Green Book...

If you’re able to get to London by January 25th, or to Dublin in February, you can still get yourself a seat to see Dr. Strangelove, adapted for the stage by The Thick of It creator Armando Iannucci and starring Iannucci’s frequent star, Steve Coogan. If you’re not? All you need is a Hulu login to see Coogan’s next most recent performance.

In this week’s episode of What We Do in the Shadows, Coogan débuts as Roderick Cravensworth, father to Matt Berry’s Laszlo — or, to be more precise, his ghost, Roderick having died more than a century ago. It’s reductive to say Roderick is the kind of father who would drive his son to rebel by embracing vampirism, but it might also be true: He’s pompous, he weasels his way into relationships far too quickly and he’s lightly emotionally abusive to...

P-p-p-pick up the new trailer for The Penguin Lessons, an upcoming drama starring Steve Coogan. And also a penguin.

Coming to a cinema near you soon(ish) is The Penguin Lessons, directed by Peter Cattaneo and based on the memoir of Tom Michell, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Pope. Steve Coogan stars alongside Jonathan Pryce, Vivian El Jaber, Björn Gustafsson and Alfonsina Carrocio.

The synopsis reads as follows:

The Penguin Lessons is a story about a disillusioned Englishman who went to work in a school in Argentina in 1976. There, he found a divided nation and a class of unteachable students, only for everything to change when he rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach.

Steve Coogan and writer Jeff Pope have been a successful filmmaking team over the last few years. It began in 2013 with Philomena, which starred Judi Dench as the titular character, who enlists the help...

If you’re too stressed to watch election returns tonight, check out these TV shows and movies instead.

No matter who you’re voting for, tonight promises to be a stressful one. The 2024 U.S. presidential election promises to be one of the closest in history, and there will be anxieties to go around as the results come in on Tuesday evening.

If you’ve cast your vote and are ready to take a break from the worries, you can browse a curated list of shows and movies with a political theme below. And if you’d rather take a break from politics altogether, I’ve also got a selection of feel-good-only titles that will help you put the stress in the rearview mirror, at least for tonight.

Related: Everything You Need to Know to Watch 2024 United States Election Night Coverage What Can You Watch Instead of Election Coverage on Tuesday,...

Stan And Ollie stars Steve Coogan and John C Reilly are reuniting for thespian comedy The Players.

One of the biggest cinematic comedy treats of 2018 was Stan And Ollie, a love letter to arguably the greatest double act of all time. At its centre were two powerhouse performances from Steve Coogan and John C Reilly, who not only captured the perfect comic timing but also the onscreen chemistry.

The film was written by Coogan’s regular collaborator Jeff Pope. The pair also made Philomena and last year’s Jimmy Savile drama, The Reckoning.

According to Deadline, Coogan and Reilly are reuniting with Pope for The Players, a comedy about actors performing a Shakespeare play in New York.

Peter Cattaneo will direct from Pope’s script. Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope are also co-producing with Protagonist Pictures’ Dave Bishop, George Hamilton, James Pugh and 42’s Josh Varney.

Cattaneo, Coogan, Pope and...

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At the dawn of the 1980s, Warner Bros. had two major in-house artists who could do just about anything they wanted. One was a movie star, the other a filmmaking genius, and they couldn't have been more different in aesthetic or temperament.

Clint Eastwood was a television star who found big-screen success by making Spaghetti Westerns in Europe with an upstart named Sergio Leone before becoming the avatar of the angry, Miranda rights-burdened American police officer as "Dirty Harry." Stanley Kubrick was a Bronx born-and-bred autodidact who found his love for filmmaking via photography; after a string of critical successes with "Paths of Glory," "Loilita" and "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb," he was hailed as a visionary for the groundbreaking "2001: A Space Odyssey," upon which he became renowned for his perfectionism and technical boundary pushing.

From 2020 to 2022, Bruce Willis cranked out a huge number of movies, most of them low-budget sci-fi/action films that all went straight-to-video, and usually playing brief, supporting roles. The many films were, by and large, panned by critics and mocked by baffled fans, all of whom wondered by Willis didn't appear to have much on-camera dialogue, or why he wasn't the lead character. In three years, he appeared in 22 movies. 

In March of 2022, it was announced that Willis had been diagnosed with aphasia, a brain condition that affected his ability to speak and comprehend language. Many of the above fans expressed their deepest apologies, and even the Razzies, in a rare show of good taste, retraced Willis' Worst Actor nominations. Willis retired from acting because of his condition. In February 2023, Willis, now 69, was also diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, and he remains in the care of his family. 

Willis, of course,...

Some audiences might have first spotted Matt Damon during a notable dinner scene in Donald Petrie's hit 1988 drama "Mystic Pizza." Thereafter, Damon turned up as an extra in "Field of Dreams" and as one of the many handsome students in the 1992 boarding school thriller "School Ties," both of them with his longtime friend and collaborator Ben Affleck. Damon went on to score some considerable screen time in Edward Zwick's "Courage Under Fire" before delivering his first lead performance in 1997 in Francis Ford Coppola's "The Rainmaker." That same year, Damon and Affleck became acclaimed Academy darlings for writing and starring in Gus Van Sant's "Good Will Hunting." The pair won Oscars for their screenplay and have both been major Hollywood players since.

Damon, having gained the clout to be picky and the fame to be noticed, thereafter became attracted to projects by established directors. After having alreayd...

The office of the President of the United States is way more famous than any specific president. Compared to, say, the king and queen of England, a new person gets to be the head of state every four or eight years via election rather than inheritance. This means you can...

On September 9th, 2024, the world lost a film legend. Known the world over for his voice, charisma, and unrivaled presence on stage and screen, James Earl Jones was one of the most versatile and decorated actors in modern film history. He was an Egot, one of a select few talented performers to have achieved the quadruple crown of performing arts, as well as the recipient of numerous other awards, including a National Medal of Arts, a Kennedy Center Honor, and a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. His awards cabinet was well-stocked, but the legacy he leaves behind as a catalyst for change in the entertainment industry and the booming voice of some of cinema’s most memorable characters is what will stick with all who got to witness his work on stage and screen. Things to do: Subscribe to The Hollywood Insider’s YouTube Channel, by clicking here. Limited...

Chicago – On September 9th 2024, the world lost an icon of acting, voice work and pop culture stardom. The great James Earl Jones passed away at age 93, after a career of prominent statute, memorable characters and a voice to a generation through Darth Vader in “Star Wars” and Mufasa in “The Lion King” (both versions). Photographer Joe Arce of HollywoodChicago.com took an Exclusive Portrait of Jones in 1993 during a Chicago book tour.

Jones was born in Mississippi, and was raised in Michigan by his maternal grandparents. His estranged father became an film actor, and they reconciled in the 1950s. Jones graduated from the University of Michigan as a drama major, and after a stint in the military made his major Broadway debut in 1958 as Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s butler in “Sunrise at Campobello.”

James Earl Jones in Chicago, 1993

Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

He shifted to Shakespearian roles thereafter,...

You can't have "Jaws" without Quint, a modern Captain Ahab if he'd been hunting a great white shark rather than a white whale. It's difficult to picture anyone but Robert Shaw (in one of his last roles before his premature death in 1978) in the part, but the actor actually wasn't who director Steven Spielberg first had in mind.

In "Spielberg: The First Ten Years" by Laurent Bouzereau, Spielberg claimed his first choice for Quint was Lee Marvin. He wanted a big star and Marvin was famous for playing sinister tough guys. See: "The Big Heat," "Point Blank," "The Dirty Dozen," and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" (directed by the man who taught Spielberg how to frame a horizon.) Marvin, though, said no. Spielberg recounted: "What I heard was that [Marvin] wanted to go fishing for real! He took his fishing very seriously and didn't want to do it from a 'movie' boat.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. To keep up with our latest features, sign up for the Weekly Edit newsletter and follow us @mubinotebook on Twitter and Instagram.NEWSNo Other Land.Politically engaged documentaries—including some of the most lauded films of the festival season, like No Other Land (2024)—are struggling to find buyers, with many filmmakers resorting to self-distribution or service deals (in which a distributor is paid to release the film while filmmakers retain the rights).After the ignominious resignation of Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, many in the nation’s film industry are calling upon his replacement, Alessandro Giuli, to abandon plans for new legislation that would curtail government subsidies for film production.With drastically expanded tax incentives and brand-new soundstages, New Jersey hopes to again become a major hub for motion pictures. First Lady Tammy Snyder Murphy emphasizes the importance of every community,...

James Earl Jones in ‘Coming 2 America’ (Photo Courtesy of Amazon Studios)

On September 9, 2024, we lost one of the great ones: James Earl Jones. Jones is one of the few people to achieve the Egot, but more important than awards was the passion, commitment, craft, and just sheer scale he brought to every role whether it was as the leading man, a supporting character, or just a voice. And he brought all that to the table whether he was doing Shakespeare or Sesame Street. He was truly a rare talent.

James Earl Jones made his Broadway debut in 1957 but gained acclaim for his work with the New York Shakespeare Festival taking on the Bard’s tragic heroes of Othello, Hamlet, Coriolanus, and King Lear. He would win a Tony Award for Best Actor for The Great White Hope (1968), a role that he reprised for the 1970 film adaptation, earning him his...

If you’re in the mood for a classic comedy, Prime Video is a great place to stream. You can get started with a 30-day Free trial, and there’s a lot to love.

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Classic Comedy Movies on Prime Video

Classic Comedy TV on Prime Video

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Classic Comedy Movies on Prime Video

For the purposes of this list, we’ll consider “classic comedies” as titles that came out at least 20 years ago.

Death Becomes Her The Big Lebowski Dr. Strangelove Heathers Swingers Galaxy Quest Fargo Billy Madison An American Werewolf in London Sweet Home Alabama Election Army of Darkness Overboard Dirty Rotten Scoundrels American Graffiti Planes, Trains, and Automobiles Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein Bowfinger Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood CB4 Roxanne Sprung Duck Soup Wallace & Gromit: The...

Iconic voice actor James Earl Jones died on Monday. He was 93 years old.

Jones, known for his roles as Darth Vader in Star Wars and Mufasa in The Lion King, was surrounded by family when he passed. The cause of death has not been revealed.

“From the gentle wisdom of Mufasa to the menacing threat of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones gave voice to some of the greatest characters in cinema history,” Chief Executive Officer of The Walt Disney Company Bob Iger said in a statement. “A celebrated stage actor with nearly 200 film and television credits to his name, the stories he brought to life with a uniquely commanding presence and a true richness of spirit have left an indelible mark on generations of audiences.”

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Jones was born in 1931 in Mississippi. His family...

The phrase “voice of a generation” gets thrown around a lot, but if that label were defined by sheer recognizability, it would be hard to find a better fit than James Earl Jones, who died Tuesday. The real question is: which generation?

Depending on whether you were born before or after the year 1990, chances are good that the sound of Jones’ roll-of-thunder baritone instantly conjures one of two characters in your mind: “The Lion King” father Mufasa or “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader. That means, Jones speaks, and you think either of a cosmically wise patriarch, whose ghost returns to offer his self-doubting successor an encouraging “remember who you are,” or the most malevolent dad in all the universe, a destroyer of planets determined to lure his son to the Dark Side.

Those two projects were such pop-culture monsters — Disney’s Hamlet-on-the-savannah riff grossed nearly $1 billion, while George Lucas’ sci-fi...

Hollywood is in mourning today as the iconic actor, James Earl Jones has passed away at the age of 93.

The actor with the most recognisable baritone rumbling voice had a career that spanned over 60 years. Making his debut on Broadway in 1958 at the Cort Theatre — renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in 2022, Jones went on to become best known for his role as Darth Vader in the ‘Star Wars’ franchise. He also reprised his voice role of King Mufasa in Disney’s animated feature ‘The Lion King.’ Most recently, he revisited his role 2021’s ‘Coming 2 America.’ Reprising his role as King Jaffe Joffer from the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy ‘Coming to America.’

Also in news – Pinch of salt time – ‘The Goonies’ sequel finally greenlit?

Throughout his long list of 80 film credits, Jones’ notable movies include as a B-52 bombardier in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire ‘Dr. Strangelove’ in which...

Legendary actor James Earl Jones, who passed away on Monday at the age of 93, has a robust legacy filled with films, television, and theatre projects that aren't just famous, but immortal. "The Empire Strikes Back," "The Lion King," "Conan the Barbarian," "Field of Dreams," "Matewan," and "Coming to America" are merely the top titles on his lengthy resume, and they're just the tip of the iceberg that was his fantastic performing career. However, when it comes to pure number-crunching, it seems that none of those films emerge victorious on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer. To be fair: as an aggregator, the Tomatometer is only able to judge reviews that it has access to, and since Jones' career predates the internet by a good number of years, not every review of every Jones performance is weighted equally.

Perhaps that's why a most surprising title actually lays claim to the name of James...

The resonant baritone of James Earl Jones – the Emmy Award-, Grammy Award-, and Tony Award-winning actor who also received an honorary Oscar, making him a non-competitive Egot designee – has gone silent. At age 93, the actor, best known for voicing the evil Darth Vader in the original “Star Wars” trilogy and later the regal Mufasa in “The Lion King,” began his career on stage, in productions of “Othello” and the boxing biography “The Great White Hope.” The latter won him his first of three Tonys, as well as an Academy Award nomination for the film version in 1970.

His other notable work over the years included “Dr. Strangelove,” “The Hunt for Red October” (and its sequels), “Conan the Barbarian,” John Sayles’s labor struggle drama “Matewan,” the Broadway production of August Wilson’s “Fences,” the uneasy racial comedy “Soul Man,” and the South Africa-set “Cry, the Beloved Country.” He was also a...

James Earl Jones, the forever fan-favorite legend who gave cinema some of the best pieces of all time – both with his voice as well as his acting, has passed away at the age of 93. While his cause of death is yet to be revealed, what is known as of now is that the stage and screen actor took his last breaths early on September 9, 2024, surrounded by his family.

James Earl Jones in Coming 2 America. | Credits: Paramount Pictures.

Over the years, the late legend delivered some really incredible performances that brilliantly shaped his career. Some of his best credits include lending his voice to Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga and Mufasa in The Lion King, to become one of fans’ all-time favorites. That said, fans and peers of the master performer are finding it hard to deal with his devastating loss.

James Earl Jones, an Entertainment Legend, Passes Away...

I spent my first decade in New York working at Variety’s former offices on Park Avenue South and more than once found myself sharing an elevator with James Earl Jones while he was on his way to or from Verizon to shoot commercials. The giant of an actor, who died today at age 93, never failed to say a warm, “Good morning” or “Good afternoon,” and even if I hadn’t recognized his face or his imposing 6-foot, 2-inch frame, there was no mistaking that sonorous voice.

His voice was the earth-shaking basso rumble coming from behind the forbidding mask of Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga, starting with the original 1977 film, and the stentorian growl of Mufasa, King of the Pride Lands and father of Simba in The Lion King.

It was also the voice of a revered stage actor, who forged his reputation in the 1960s and ‘70s,...

She might be the greatest dramatic actress of her generation, but Cate Blanchett hasn’t scared away every comedic director. After all, “Rumours” helmers Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson sent her the script for their audacious satire.

“I think in a strange way, everything is funny,” Blanchett said during an interview at the Variety Toronto Film Festival Studio. “We are all absurd in some way, and we all think we’re the heroes and the tragedians of our own stories. Yeah. Sometimes you make decisions about what you can be involved in based on a lot of things that don’t have to necessarily do with choice. Sometimes it’s to do with whether it fits in with your kids’ holidays.”

“That’s how we got you?” Evan Johnson asked.

“Yes, I wanted to be in the forest at night for eight weeks in Budapest, and my kids were really happy about that!

Legendary star of stage and screen James Earl Jones has passed away at the age of 93, it has been confirmed. The Egot winning actor, whose inimitable baritone brought life to the likes of The Lion King's Mufasa and Star Wars villain Darth Vader, died this morning at his home in Dutchess County, New York, Jones’ representatives shared with Deadline.

Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi on 17 January, 1931 to Ruth and Robert Earl Jones, it may surprise you to learn that James Earl Jones — one of the great masters of oration across film, TV, and theatre — overcame great struggles to gain control of his voice as a child. Having moved from Mississippi to Michigan to live with his maternal grandparents at just 5 years of age, Jones grew up with a profound stutter, and has in the past gone on record describing how he was all but mute throughout primary and early secondary school.

Mark Hamill, Kevin Costner, Octavia Spencer and Colman Domingo were among the first Hollywood voices to pay tribute to James Earl Jones following news of his death on Monday.

Jones died at his home in New York on Monday. He was 93. His career spanned half a century of film, including Dr. Strangelove, Field of Dreams, Star Wars and The Lion King. He won an honorary Oscar at the 2011 Governors Awards.

Jones was also a celebrated stage actor, and earned two Tony Awards for his work in 1968’s Great White Hope and 1986’s Fences.

He won two Emmys, both in 1991, for his performances in Gabriel’s Fire and Heat Wave. He also won a Grammy in 1977 for best spoken word recording.

Hamill, who played the Luke Skywalker, son of Jones’ Darth Vader in Star Wars, was one of the first to react, writing on social media, “#Rip dad.”

Later the same day,...

Refresh for updates…Tributes are pouring in following the news of the death of distinguished actor James Earl Jones. Widely regarded as one the world’s great stage and screen actors, Jones passed away this morning at his home in Dutchess County, NY at the age of 93.

Jones, among the few entertainers to attain Egot status, is also well known as the voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader and The Lion King’s Mufasa.

He made his big-screen debut in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) but burst into the national spotlight as America’s first Black heavyweight champion in The Great White Hope, for which he received an Oscar nomination.

Related: Remembering James Earl Jones: A Life & Career In Photos

Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, son of Jones’ Darth Vader in Star Wars,...

Actor James Earl Jones has died. Beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), Jones went on to appear in some of the most successful films of all-time. To many movie fans, he is probably best known for his role as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy (he provided the character’s memorable voice).

Jones also appeared on the animated series The Simpsons (1989) three times and voiced 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). He also acted in films such as Conan the Barbarian (1982), Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Hunt for Red October (1990), The Sandlot (1990), Patriot Games (1992) and Sneakers (1992).

Jones earned four competitive Tony Award...

An absolute titan of the industry is sadly no longer with us. James Earl Jones, the prolific acting talent who made an indelible mark on cinema through his voice roles for Darth Vader in "Star Wars" and Mufasa in "The Lion King," has passed away at the age of 93. Jones' death was confirmed by Deadline, who report the legendary actor passed away at his home in Dutchess County, NY.

Jones appeared in several stone-cold classics such as "Dr. Strangelove," multiple "Star Wars" movies (as the iconic voice of Darth Vader), the "Coming to America" movies, "The Lion King," and "The Hunt for Red October," but his contributions to the arts go far beyond his most famous roles. Having first got his start in theater and television, his Broadway performances span the likes of "Of Mice and Men" in the 1970s, "Othello" in 1982, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" in 2008, and...

James Earl Jones is dead at the age of 93. Deadline first reported he died the morning of September 9, which IndieWire has confirmed. The distinguished Egot winner, esteemed star of stage and screen, and iconic basso profondo voice of Darth Vader enjoyed a remarkable, decade-spanning career that found him playing a slew of iconic characters in film, TV, and theater. Jones’ credits ranged from Othello to Malcolm X, Santa Claus, Ebenezer Scrooge, King Lear, and one of the famous villains of all time in “Star Wars.”

While he did not win a competitive Academy Award during his career, he received an Honorary Academy Award in 2011, granting him vaunted “Egot” status. He was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1985, was presented with the National Medal of the Arts by President George H. W. Bush in 1992, and received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2002.

In 2009, he received the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award.

James Earl Jones, a commanding presence onscreen who nonetheless gained greater fame off-camera as the sonorous voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader and Mufasa, the benevolent leader in The Lion King, died Monday. He was 93.

Jones, who burst into national prominence in 1970 with his powerful Oscar-nominated performance as America’s first Black heavyweight champion in The Great White Hope, died at his home in Dutchess County, New York, Independent Artist Group announced.

The distinguished star made his big-screen debut in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and was noteworthy in many other films, including Claudine (1974) opposite Diahann Carroll; Field of Dreams (1989), as the reclusive author Terence Mann; and The Sandlot (1993), as the intimidating neighborhood guy Mr. Mertle.

For his work on the stage, Jones earned two best actor Tony Awards: for originating the role of Jack Jefferson — who was...

James Earl Jones, the renowned actor of stage and screen who lent his booming, inimitable voice to Darth Vader and The Lion King, died Monday morning at the age of 93.

Jones died at his home in Duchess County, New York, with his family surrounding him, the actor’s representatives at Independent Artist Group confirmed to Rolling Stone. No cause of death was given.

In the decades before venturing off to “a galaxy far, far away,” Jones was a Tony-winning Broadway star, first winning Best Actor in 1970 for his role of...

James Earl Jones, the Egot winner who lent his distinctive voice to such iconic film characters as Darth Vader and Mufasa of “The Lion King,” has died at 93.

He died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, New York, according to his representatives.

The actor, who made his film debut in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 black comedy, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” went on to appear in such beloved films as “Field of Dreams,” “Coming to America” and “Conan the Barbarian.” He also authoritatively told viewers, “This is CNN.”

A powerful presence onscreen, Jones was also known to several generations as the voice of the terrifying “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader in George Lucas’ original “Star Wars” trilogy, as well as the regal Mufasa in both versions of Disney’s “The Lion King.”

Jon Favreau, who directed the 2019 remake of the animated classic,...

James Earl Jones has sadly passed away.

The beloved actor, best known for voicing the role of Darth Vader in the Star Wars series and for being an Egot recipient, died at the age of 93.

Keep reading to find out more…

Jones‘ reps confirmed the news to Deadline, revealing that he passed away on Monday morning (September 9) at his home in Duchess County, New York.

To complete his Egot, Jones received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Oscars in 2011, Emmys for Heat Wave and Gabriel’s Fire both in 1991, a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album in 1977, and Tony Awards for The Great White Hope in 1969 and Fences in 1987.

Some of Jones‘ best known film roles included Lt. Lothar Zogg in Dr. Strangelove, Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope, Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian, King Jaffe Joffer in Coming to America, Terence Mann in Field of Dreams, and...

Very sad news to report today as it has been confirmed that James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93. The actor is best known for providing the iconic voice of Darth Vader throughout the Star Wars franchise, but that’s really only scratching the surface of his incredible legacy. A huge loss.

For an actor known for his deep, commanding voice, it’s remarkable that he struggled with speaking at an early age. When he was just five years old, he was sent to live with his grandparents in Michigan. The experience was so traumatic that he developed a severe stutter that led to him refusing to speak. “I was a stutterer. I couldn’t talk,” Jones explained. “So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school.” The actor credited his English teacher, Donald Crouch,...

James Earl Jones, the Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony-winning actor known as the voice of Star Wars‘ Darth Vader, has died. The performer was 93. Jones’ death was confirmed by his representatives at Independent Artist Group, who said he died at his home in Dutchess County, New York on the morning of Monday, September 9, per Deadline. A cause of death was not disclosed. As mentioned, above, Jones became a household name for his voice work as Star Wars villain Darth Vader beginning with George Lucas’s 1977 film, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. Since then, Jones has lent his iconic voice to the character for more than five decades. A great stage actor, Jones and his work transcended the screen, but among his most memorable credits are roles in Field of Dreams, The Sandlot, The Hunt for Red October, and Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.

James Earl Jones, the prolific film, TV and theater actor whose resonant, unmistakable baritone was most widely known as the voice of “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader, died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, N.Y., his rep confirmed to Variety. He was 93.

After overcoming a profound stutter as a child, Jones established himself as one of the pioneering Black actors of his generation, amassing a bountiful and versatile career spanning over 60 years, from his debut on Broadway in 1958 at the Cort Theatre — renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in 2022 — to his most recent performance in 2021’s “Coming 2 America.” For that film, Jones reprised his role as King Jaffe Joffer from the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy “Coming to America” — one of several roles, along with Darth Vader, that Jones revisited, including the voice of King Mufasa in Disney’s animated feature “The Lion King” in 1994, the 1998 direct-to-video sequel and the 2019 remake,...

Veteran actor James Earl Jones, whose distinct voice made him a staple of film and television, died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, N.Y. He was 93.

His reps at Independent Artist Group confirmed the news to our sister site Deadline. TVLine has reached out to Iag for confirmation.

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The actor is perhaps best known as the voice of Darth Vader throughout the Star Wars franchise.

James Earl Jones, the Egot-winning actor known for voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise for four decades, has died at age 93.

Jones passed away at his home in Dutchess County, New York, on Monday, September 9th, according to the actor’s representatives.

The son of actor and boxer Robert Earl Jones, James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi on January 17th, 1931. His father left the family shortly after his birth, and Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents in Michigan from the age of five. Jones found the transition to living with his grandparents so traumatic that he developed a stutter and spent his time in school mute. He credited his high school English teacher, Donald Crouch, for helping him with his stutter; Crouch discovered Jones had a talent for poetry, and encouraged him to read his work aloud in class.

After graduating high school in 1949, Jones attended the University of Michigan,...

James Earl Jones, the revered actor who voiced Star Wars villain Darth Vader, starred in Field of Dreams and many other films and Broadway shows and is an Egot winner, died this morning at his home in Dutchess County, NY. He was 93.

His reps at Independent Artist Group confirmed the news to Deadline.

Widely regarded as among the world’s great stage and screen actors Jones is one of the few entertainers to have won the Egot, though his Academy Award was Honorary. Jones has received two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy, a spoken-word Grammy Award in 1977 and three Tony Awards.

The actor amassed nearly 200 screen credits during his brilliant 60-year career, starting some early-’60s TV guest roles and Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He probably is best known for his voice...

Pop quiz: who has the best voice in the history of movies? You’re dead wrong if your answer is anything other than James Earl Jones. Indeed, the classic, rich baritone is the defining voice of multiple generations, with him famously voicing the Sith Lord himself, Darth Vader, in the Star Wars franchise. In a much friendlier vein, he also voiced The Lion King himself, Mufasa, and when that movie was remade, even though no one else in the cast reprised their roles, there was never any doubt that only one man could voice the wise king. Plus, he famously voiced the iconic phrase, “This is CNN”. If Jones were only a voice actor, he’d be an indisputable icon.

Yet, there’s so much more to him than just his voice work. James Earl Jones is also one of the great modern character actors, making his film debut in...

September 8 marks the birthday of actor and comic legend Peter Sellers. The British star had achieved acclaim on the stage, in recordings and most famously on the radio, particularly for the “The Goon Show,” the popular comedy series regularly heard on the BBC.

However, it was in film where Sellers achieved his greatest worldwide success. He was nominated for his first Academy Award in 1959 for co-writing and producing the live-action short “The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film.” Sellers also received two other Oscar nominations, as Best Actor for 1964’s “Dr. Strangelove” (from Stanley Kubrick) as well as for 1979’s “Being There” (from Hal Ashby).

Sellers won the Best Actor Golden Globe for “Being There” and was nominated on five other occasions, including three times for “The Pink Panther” series (from Blake Edwards) in which he portrayed bumbling Inspector Jacques Clouseau, the role for which he will likely be best remembered.

Stanley Kubrick's 1964 classic "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" remained depressingly relevant. We live on a planet wherein humans have invented single explosive devices powerful enough to eliminate all life on Earth, and yet they are being handled by whiny, insecure, clownish politicians and violence-obsessed military wonks with impotence and delusions of grandeur. It's telling that one of the biggest hits of 2023, Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer," was also about how petty egos tend to take precedence over the profound immoral invention of the nuclear bomb.

1964 was a time when phrases like "balance of power" were bandied about in the news, all while politicians and pundits argued about the moral righteousness of every major global superpower possessing the ability to destroy the world with equal skill. If everyone on Earth can blow up the planet, surely, then, everything is in perfect balance.

Kubrick...

Election season is in the air and Turner Classic Movies is here to celebrate. Starting on September 6 and continuing every Friday up until this year’s general election, TCM will be running a nine-week limited series entitled “Making Change: The Most Significant Political Films of All Time.” This cinematic showcase is inspired by The New Republic rankings released in June 2023 and includes selections such as “All the King’s Men,” “Germany, Year Zero,” and “High and Low.”

To introduce the upcoming series, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz took to Washington D.C. for a trailer highlighting some of the films featured, as well as special guests like Stacey Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and John Turturro.

“I grew up here in Washington D.C.,” Mankiewicz said, the Capitol Building behind him. “My father’s life was politics — capital P politics. Though I went in a different direction, I understood at an early age,...