James Earl Jones (January 16, 1931 - September 9, 2024) was an American actor and voice actor.
On broadway, Jones is best known for his award-winning performances on The Great White Hope (as Jack Jefferson). He has appeared in many Shakespeare plays, including Othello, King Lear, Hamlet, A Mid-Summer Night's Dream, and Much Ado About Nothing. His other notable theatre credentials include Of Mice and Men, Fences, On Golden Pond, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Driving Miss Daisy, and The Best Man.
On screen, Jones' first role was Lieutenant Lothar Zogg in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. He reprised his role as Jack Jefferson in the 1970 film version of The Great White Hope. He portrayed Malcolm X in the 1972 film Malcolm X and The Greatest five years later. His other film credentials include Claudine, Conan the Barbarian (as Thulsa Doom), Matewan, Coming to America, Field of Dreams (as Terrance Mann), The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, The Sandlot, A Family Thing, Finder's Fee, and The Angriest Man in Brooklyn.
Jones' televised appearances include East Side/West Side, an early episode of Sesame Street (where he counted from one to ten), Roots: The Next Generations (as the older Alex Haley), the 1979 series Paris (co-starring Hank Garrett), Square One TV (as Thad Green on the Dragnet parody Mathnet), Long Ago and Far Away, Gabriel's Fire/Pros and Cons, Under One Roof, Fraiser, An American Moment, Summer's End, Everwood, House, M.D., and The Big Bang Theory. His performances in Gabriel's Fire and the television film Heat Wave won him two Emmy Awards in 1991.
As a voice actor, Jones is best known for voicing Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, as well as Mufasa from Disney's The Lion King. He has also been heard in The Flight of Dragons, Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night, three episodes of The Simpsons, Our Friend, Martin, Recess, and Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey. He was an announcer for CNN, most notably the line "This is CNN". On James Earl Jones Reads the Bible, he provides narration for all 27 books of the New Testament.