FULL BIOGRAPHY of JAMES EARL JONES, BIRTH TO END OF LIFE at age 93

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 Duchess County New York he was 93 James Earl Jones was born in 1931 on a farm in in Arab butla Mississippi his father Robert Earl Jones left home soon after to pursue his own acting career when Jones was five he moved in with his maternal grandparents to Michigan the shock of the relocation induced a stammer so severe that he often could communicate only in writing it wasn't until High School when he started to overcome his stutter as an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan Jones initially set out to study medicine but would end up more interested in drama his first stage role was a small part in the 1957 offro way production wedding in Japan in 1960 Jones joined Pap's New York Shakespeare Festival the following year he made his first serious impact his masterful 1964 performance as aof for Pap was moved off Broadway where the production ran for almost a year Jan's first big break into Cinema came by way of Pap's production of The Merchant of Venice in which Jones played the prince of Morocco in 1966 Jones had had the title role in McBeth at the New York Shakespeare Festival and played a role in As the World Turns in 1966 marking the first time a black actor had a continuing role on a daytime soap opera still he was almost one of Broadway's best-kept Secrets until 1968 with his performance in Howard sackers the great white hoe as Jack Johnson the first black man to win the world heavyweight boxing championship it was wasn't until 1977 when Jones voice terrified audiences for the first time as Darth Vader that things truly began to shift for him that same year Jones also appeared in ABC's Roots playing the author Alex Haley in 2008 he played Big Daddy in a production of Tennessee Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof that featured an all black cast including Terrence Howard 2 years later he returned to Broadway in a Revival of Driving Miss Daisy Jones was first married to actress singer Julian Marie his second wife of 34 years actress Cecilia Hart who died in 2016 he is survived by his son Flynn Earl Jones 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 court theater renamed the James Earl Jones theater in 2022 to his most recent performance in 2021 EAS Coming to America in Disney's animated feature The Lion King in 1994 the 1998 direct to video Sequel and the 2019 remake and see a deputy director vice admiral James Greer in three Jack Ryan movies 19 90 The Hunt for Red October the 1992 Patriot Games and the year 1994 clear and present danger