James Earl Jones: a life in pictures
The actor has died aged 93. His stage and screen career spanned seven decades, and he was known for his signature voice, which brought The Lion King’s Mufasa and Star Wars’ Darth Vader to life
by Greg Whitmore · the GuardianJames Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on 17 January 1931. He overcame a severe stutter to train as an actor and began working in the mid 1950s. This portrait was taken in London in 1969 after he had won a Tony award for best actor for his role in The Great White Hope.
Photograph: Jane Bown/The Observer
East Side/West Side, 1963
Jones, pictured here with Diana Sands, was nominated for a Primetime Emmy for outstanding guest actor for his role in the TV show.
Photograph: CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
The Comedians
Richard Burton, James Earl Jones, Alec Guinness, Elizabeth Taylor and Peter Ustinov in a scene from The Comedians, set in Haiti and based on the Graham Greene novel.
Photograph: MGM/Allstar
The Great White Hope
James Earl Jones, playing Jack Jefferson, tells off former paramour Clara, played by Marlene Warfield, in a scene from the play, at the Alvin theatre on Broadway.
Photograph: AP
James Earl Jones at home with his first wife, Julienne Marie, on 8 February 1969.
Photograph: Louis Liotta/New York Post Archives/Getty Images
James Earl Jones, with a Tony award for best actor for his performance in The Great White Hope, with Lauren Bacall, who presented it to him at the ceremony in Manhattan, on 20 April 1969.
Photograph: Bettmann Archive
Muhammad Ali, right, lets himself be tagged with a left thrown by Jones, in Hollywood on 10 November 1969. [• This caption was amended on 10 September 2024. An earlier version used Ali’s birth name of Cassius Clay, which he changed in 1964.]
Photograph: AP
Claudine, 1974
Jones was nominated for the best actor in a motion picture – comedy or musical for his role as Harlem garbage collector Roop, who romances Claudine in 1974, played by Diahann Carroll.
Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com
The Greatest, 1977
James Earl Jones plays Malcolm X in this dramatization of Muhammad Ali’s life, with Ali playing himself.
Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com
Star Wars, 1977
George Lucas wasn’t a fan of Dave Prowse’s British West Country burr, so James Earl Jones put the voice to Prowse’s imposing body and one of sci-fi’s greatest villains was born – Darth Vader.
Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com
Paul Robeson, 1977
Coretta Scott King, widow of civil rights leader Dr Martin Luther King, chats with Jones backstage at the National Theatre in Washington, on 22 December 1977, where Jones is starring in the one-man show based on the life of the singer, actor and civil rights activist.
Photograph: Harvey Georges/AP
After a four-week run in Washington DC, the one-man show, based on the life of Paul Robeson, went to Broadway before going on to London. Here Jones is seen with a bust of Robeson on stage at Her Majesty’s theatre in August 1978.
Photograph: Hulton Deutsch/Getty Images
Paris, 1979-1980
James Earl Jones played Detective Captain Woody Paris, with Lee Chamberlin, who played his wife Barbara, in this Steven Bochco, pre-Hill Street Blues cop show.
Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, 1980
‘I am your father’: Darth Vader, voice by Jones.
Photograph: www.ronaldgrantarchive.com
Othello, 1982
James Earl Jones as Othello and Christopher Plummer as Iago at the Winter Garden theatre on Broadway.
Photograph: Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images
Conan the Barbarian, 1982
Jones as Thulsa Doom (who is about to turn into a snake) with the enslaved princess, played by Valérie Quennessen.
Photograph: Collection Christophel/Alamy
Fences, 1987
James Earl Jones gets a hug from Mark Hamill backstage after Jones finished a performance in the Broadway hit in New York. Jones won the Tony award for best actor for his performance in the lead role of the play that deals with race relations.
Photograph: Frankie Ziths/AP
Coming to America, 1988
Arsenio Hall, Eddie Murphy, James Earl Jones and Madge Sinclair.
Photograph: Paramount/Allstar
Field of Dreams, 1989
James Earl Jones, Kevin Costner and Amy Madigan.
Photograph: Universal/Allstar
The Hunt for Red October, 1990
James Earl Jones, with Alec Baldwin as Jack Ryan, reprised the role of Admiral Greer in two more Tom Clancy adaptations, Patriot Games in 1992 and Clear and Present Danger in 1994.
Photograph: Paramount/Allstar
Heat Wave, 1990
James Earl Jones, Cicely Tyson and Blair Underwood in the TV movie about the 1965 race riots in Watts, Los Angeles. Jones won a Primetime Emmy for best supporting actor for his performance.
Photograph: ITV/REX/Shutterstock
Gabriel’s Fire, 1990-91
Dylan Walsh, James Earl Jones and Darth Vader in the February 1991 episode Postcards from the Faultline. In the TV series, Jones plays wrongly convicted ex-cop turned private eye Gabriel Bird, and his performances won him the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a drama series.
Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo
During his opening remarks at the 43rd annual Emmy awards in Pasadena, California, on 25 August 1991, James Earl Jones parodied his own booming dramatic voice in a speech about the gifted purveyors of comedy and then gamely took a cream pie in the face.
Photograph: Nick Ut/AP
Later that night, having cleaned up his suit, James Earl Jones cleaned up on awards. Here he holds up his two Emmys for best lead actor for Gabriel’s Fire and for best supporting actor for Heat Wave.
Photograph: Reed Saxon/AP
James Earl Jones receives the National Medal of the Arts from President George HW Bush as Barbara Bush looks on during a ceremony at the White House in Washington, on 22 July 1992. In recognizing Jones’s work, Bush said: ‘Jones has stamped his purely American mark on classical roles and created new characters who explore man’s quest for dignity.’
Photograph: Doug Mills/AP
The Lion King, 1994
James Earl Jones voiced the character Mufasa, Simba’s dad.
Photograph: Walt Disney/Allstar
Cry, The Beloved Country, 1995
A publicity photo from the South African-set film featuring Richard Harris, Nelson Mandela and James Earl Jones.
Photograph: Miramax/REX/Shutterstock
Summer’s End, 1999
Jones, pictured here with Wendy Crewson, stars in a TV movie that deals with local prejudice and racism in Georgia. Jones won the Daytime Emmy award for outstanding performer in a children’s special.
Photograph: Alamy
Jones is surrounded by students in the library of PS 149, the Sojourner Truth elementary school in Harlem, on 20 January 2005. In recognition of Black History Month and the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott, Jones read If A Bus Could Talk: The Story of Rosa Parks by Faith Ringgold to a group of students.
Photograph: Richard Drew/AP
Jones, with his second wife, Cecilia Hart, and their son, Flynn Earl Jones, backstage on closing night of the hit play in which Jones starred, Driving Miss Daisy, on Broadway at the Golden theatre, in New York on 9 April 2011.
Photograph: Bruce Glikas/FilmMagic
Driving Miss Daisy, 2011
When the show came to London in October, James Earl Jones, as Hoke Colburn, starred alongside Vanessa Redgrave as Daisy Werthan at Wyndham’s theatre.
Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
Jones with his honorary Oscar at the 84th Annual Academy Awards show at the Hollywood and Highland Centre in Los Angeles, California, on 26 February 2012.
Photograph: Al Seib/LA Times via Getty Images
Much Ado About Nothing, 2013
James Earl Jones as Benedict and Vanessa Redgrave as Beatrice, directed by Mark Rylance, at the Old Vic in London.
Photograph: Tristram Kenton/The Guardian
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, 2016
Jones reprises his role voicing Darth Vader.
Photograph: 2016 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™, All Rights Reserved
James Earl Jones sits for a portrait at the Longacre theatre in New York, on 16 September 2014.
Photograph: Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post/Getty Images