(LifeSiteNews) – The Catholic convert who possessed what became one of the most recognizable voices in American cinema has died.
James Earl Jones, known throughout the world as the voice of Star Wars’ Darth Vader, was 93 when he died September 9.
Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, in 1931. As a five- or six-year-old, he moved to northern Michigan to live on his grandparents’ farm, his father having abandoned him and his mother. Jones’ grandmother was a devout Christian and his grandfather built a non-denominational church on her behalf. In a 1993 essay, Jones recalled that they invited neighbors of every race to their services.
Perhaps because of the shock of moving north, Jones developed the stutter that plagued him throughout childhood. Feeling ashamed of his inability to speak to others, he stopped going to church or Sunday school. However, at 14 he overcame his stammer, thanks to Professor Donald Crouch, the inspiring teacher who encouraged Jones to recite poetry, develop his vocal skills, and try for a university scholarship. Crouch was also, in an understated way, a Christian influence on the teenager.
Jones attended the University of Michigan, where he studied drama, and then served with the U.S. Army in the Cold Weather Training Command. It was while he served in Colorado that he embraced the Catholic faith.
“It was in the Army that a Jesuit chaplain helped me understand who God really was and opened the door to which Professor Crouch had led me,” Jones wrote in 1993.
Today, there are statues of both Jones and Crouch in Brethren, Michigan, where they met, to celebrate the impact of good mentoring.
When Jones left the Army, he went to New York, where he pursued acting supported by the American Theatre Wing and his own efforts, cleaning theaters between roles. He won a name — and awards — for himself on the stage before taking his first iconic film role: that of Lt. Lothan Zogg, straight man to the cowboy-hatted Major Kong in the 1963 black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. After winning further accolades as boxer Jack Jefferson in both the stage and film (1972) versions of The Great White Hope, Jones took a small — he thought — voiceover job for a 1977 sci-fi film eventually titled Star Wars. Already famous in the U.S., Jones became an international superstar thanks to a character played by another actor (David Prowse): Darth Vader.
In addition to his unforgettable contribution to the Star Wars films franchise, Jones also made his mark on the iconic baseball film Field of Dreams (1989) and, as the voice of Mufasa, The Lion King (1994). Twice married (both times to divorcees), Jones never became a priest, as he once envisioned, but he did play a sympathetic priest in a film about a crisis pregnancy, Gimme Shelter (2013). In addition, Jones recorded the entire New Testament, an assignment he thought might have been his “greatest honor.”
Jones stated in his 1993 essay that his inspiration for his New Testament recording was his old teacher, Professor Crouch.
“… (W)hen I was asked to record the New Testament, I really did it for a tall, lean man with gray hair who had not only helped to guide me to the author of the Scriptures, but as the father of my resurrected voice, had also helped me find abundant life,” he wrote.
Jones’ second wife, actress Cecilia Hart, died in 2016. During their 34-year marriage, the couple had one child, Flynn Earl Jones, who is himself a voice actor today. Jones’ marriage to first wife, actress Julienne Marie Hendricks, took place in 1968. They were divorced in 1972, in part because Hendricks did not want children.