With James Earl Jones the world has lost a great protagonist of the seventh art and not only, since the actor, of Irish, Native and African American origins, son of art, was very active especially in the theater and on the small screen, becoming one of the most famous faces of his time. His was an atypical career, linked to a unique stage presence, but above all to the voice, his voice, with which he dubbed characters who became legends, part of the common narrative. Demonstrating that being a great actor sometimes also means not appearing but knowing how to arrive with the voice, an essential tool even today.

The Mississippi Boy Who Became a Theater God

In the end that voice was so precious, that they asked him to be able to reproduce it with artificial intelligence, in short to be able to sample it in some way, because it was truly unique, inimitable, perhaps the most famous in the history of cinema. James Earl Jones, who died at 93, despite an extraordinary acting career, with 10 Emmy nominations, 5 Golden Globe nominations and an Oscar for his career, for everyone today is still a voice, or rather two voices: that of King Mufasa in “The Lion King” is that of the greatest villain of all time, Darth Vader, the Fallen, the very symbol of the “Star Wars” universe. That deep, powerful tone of his, still makes your wrists tremble, he was able to define these two characters in such an iconic way, to make them immortal in the memory of the public even today, strengthening and defining their semantic and even symbolic load. And to think that until the age of 8 he was afflicted by a very serious form of stuttering, he spoke very little, so much so that for a long time he was undecided whether to embrace the military world or become a doctor. Luckily for us, James Earl Jones finally decided to become an actor, like his father with whom he had no further contact until the 1950s.

It was during this period that he became a regular presence on Broadway, especially in Shakespearean dramas, for which he seemed to have been created specifically. His film debut was not unimportant, in Stanley Kubrick’s “Dr. Strangelove”, before finding consecration in “The Great White Hope” by Howard Sackler, which he had already brought to the stage. There he played Jack Johnson, the first African-American boxer to become heavyweight champion and for this reason persecuted throughout his life by whites in the racist America of the early 1900s. A performance that earned him nominations for an Oscar and a Golden Globe as Best Actor in a Leading Role. Only Sydney Poitier before him had managed it. The following years saw James Earl Jones try his hand at the most prestigious theater stages and on the big screen in genres ranging from romantic comedy to drama, before being chosen in 1977 by George Lucas to voice Darth Vader. It was there that his life truly changed, that the general public elected him as the very symbol of a trilogy in which he returned over and over again, really or metaphorically, until the copyright of his voice was secured in the Star Wars universe for posterity.

An all-round actor who has been able to give us incredible roles

Also active on the small screen, in 1982 he would give us perhaps his most important cinematic character, that Thulsa Doom who was Arnold Schwarzenegger’s villain in John Milius’ masterpiece “Conan the Barbarian”. A titanic character, an absurd concentration of charisma, leadership, religious and political fanaticism, as well as wisdom, armed with his cavernous voice and his charm, he helped rewrite the concept of the antagonist, creating a revolution that has settled in the decades to come in every cinematographic genre. Also in the 80s, James Earl Jones would leap to honors with the participation in an absolute cult such as “Coming to America” ​​by John Landis, in the role of the King of Zamunda, father of a wild Eddie Murphy. He then starred alongside Kevin Costner in “Field of Dreams”, in “The Hunt for Red October” by John McTiernan, “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger” alongside Harrison Ford, “The League of Their Own” by David Mickey Evans. However, he never left the theater, which for him remains the absolute priority, as evidenced by the list of nominations for Tony Awards that he continued to collect, while on the big screen even in the 90s he always stood out as one of the most appreciated character actors.

Finally, in 1994 he was chosen to be part of the dubbing cast of “The Lion King”. He had already been a voice actor in many documentaries and animated films, but certainly his King Mufasa, to this day, remains one of the most iconic characters in the history of cinema, certainly not only in animation, by virtue of that baritone voice, of his ability to give a unique, inimitable personality to what was not only the ideal father for the public, but a spiritual guide, whose legacy is still alive and present today, and whose death was one of the most traumatic moments in cinema. Then came “American Civil War II”, “Jefferson in Paris”, “Richard III”… the last one on the big screen was three years ago, for “Coming 2 America”, the sequel to Eddie Murphy’s iconic first adventure in New York. Even there, in a very mediocre film, James Earl Jones managed to convince, as only the greats can, because James Earl Jones was truly great, as well as a symbol of emancipation for that African-American community of which he was one of the most beloved artistic symbols ever.