Beloved Actor and Voice Actor James Earl Jones sadly passed away at the age of 93 on September 9, 2024. Born January 17, 1931, James Earl Jones was a critically acclaimed actor, that got his career started in theater, “working on many Shakespeare productions like Othello, King Lear, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure and Hamlet”(TV Line). He would then get his big break in the 80s in the August Wilson play, ‘Fences’ that would see Jones be awarded with a tony award for his performance as ‘Troy Maxson’ in 1987.

Jones starred in numerous movies ranging from The Sandlot, Field of Dreams, Coming to America, The Lion King, and Star Wars as one of the most iconic villain characters in film history, Darth Vader. Jones Voiced Darth Vader during the original trilogy, where he first voiced the infamous villain in 1977, where he would only be given $7,000 for his part in the role, saying, “I thought that was good money”(PEOPLE), later saying that he was happy to be a part of such a fun franchise. Jones continued his tenure throughout multiple films in the Star Wars franchise all the way up to 2022 in the recent Disney+ tv series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Jones would continue to act with, him appearing in numerous films such as reprising his role as Vader in the 2016 Star Wars film, Rouge one, and Mufasa in the Live action film the Lion king in 2019, Jones last performance was in ‘Coming 2 America’, which was the sequel to ‘Coming to America’ where he played ‘King Jaffe Joffer’ alongside Eddie Murphy.

Jones career lasted over more than 5 decades as he loves to play many different roles with him stating in an interview with ‘PEOPLE’, “I’d like to play anything that gives me a chance to learn about people who are truly different from me”. Jones received an honorary Oscar award and lifetime tony award for his work as an actor back in 2022. Jones also received many accolades throughout his career which led to him being a part of the EGOT club which is awarded to those who have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards throughout their career. The Cause of death is still yet to be known, but Jones had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes since the 1990s, with Jones saying that he had stumbled along the diagnosis after he fell asleep on a bench and a doctor told him that it wasn’t “normal for that to happen”, so he went to the doctor and found out, and had said that, “the support from friends and family help with it all”(PEOPLE). The career of James Earl Jones is an illustrious one and has changed the lives of many throughout his lifetime.