James Earl Jones with President George H.W. Bush and First Girl Barbara Bush in 1992. (Picture: George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum)
DUTCHESS COUNTY, NY (CelebrityAccess) — James Earl Jones, a veteran actor of stage and display, finest identified for offering his distinctive baritone for the voice of the Star Wars villain Darth Vader, has died. He was 93.
Born in Mississippi, Jones relocated to Michigan together with his household and went on to attend the College of Michigan, the place he was enrolled within the pre-med program and the Reserve Officers’ Coaching Corps.
Beginning in 1953, he was commissioned as an officer within the U.S. navy and served within the thirty eighth Regimental Fight Crew and helped to ascertain a cold-weather coaching command on the former Camp Hale close to Leadville, Colorado.
After leaving the navy, Jones studied on the American Theatre Wing and appeared on stage with a deal with Shakespeare earlier than touchdown his first credited movie function in 1964 as a member of a bomber crew in Stanley Kubrick’s darkish comedy masterpiece Dr. Strangelove or: How I Discovered to Cease Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964.
He went on to lend his distinctive voice to Darth Vader, the villain of George Lucas’ epic sci-fi trilogy Star Wars, the function for which he’s probably finest identified, but in addition appeared in movies corresponding to “Exorcist II: The Heretic” (1977), Coming to America (1988), Area of Desires (1989), The Hunt for Pink October (1990), and the Lion King (1994) amongst quite a few others.
His theatrical credit embrace Of Mice & Males (1974), Driving Miss Daisy (2010) and The Gin Recreation (2016) amongst others.
Throughout his prolonged profession, Jones was the recipient of quite a few accolades, together with two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmys, and a Grammy Award. He was additionally inducted into the American Theater Corridor of Fame in 1985 and he was introduced with an Academy Honorary Award in 2011.
In 1992, he was awarded the Nationwide Medal of Arts by U.S. President George H. W. Bush.
