One of the best actors of all time is gone. James Earl Jones died on Monday at the age of 93.
Jones was a powerhouse actor on stage and screen, but what’s funny is that he’s probably best known for his voice acting. That’s how I became aware of him: his bravura work in the Star Wars movies. As I got to know his other work, he became one of my favorite actors.
Jones won Emmys, Tonys, and a Grammy. He never won a competitive Oscar, but the Academy gave him an honorary award in 2011.
Here’s a list of 10 of my favorite performances of his. They run the gamut from comedy to drama to the ultimate audiobook. I hope you’ll enjoy and appreciate these performances as much as I always will.
10. “The Star Wars Holiday Special” (1978)
I included this 17-second clip for two reasons. First, I don’t want anyone to forget “The Star Wars Holiday Special,” even though George Lucas wants us to. Second, I needed an even 10 clips. So here you go.
9. “James Earl Jones Reads the Bible” (2002)
This makes my list because Jones’ Christian faith was so important to him. He became Catholic when he was in the military, and he told an interviewer in 1993 that “Perhaps my greatest honor came when I was asked to read the New Testament on tape.”
Jones recorded the King James Version of the New Testament in the ‘80s, and producers engineered it for CD and downloadable audio in 2002.
Here’s the first chapter of the Gospel of John:
8. “The Simpsons: Treehouse of Horror” (1990)
I haven’t watched “The Simpsons” in decades, but in the show’s early years, I always loved the “Treehouse of Horror” episodes. The aliens Kang and Kodos were always highlights, but Jones’ reading of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven” was what hooked me.
The juxtaposition of Jones’ deathly serious reading of the narration with the characters’ comedic performances makes this sketch memorable and always worth re-watching.
7. “The Lion King” (1994/2019)
“The Lion King” came out right in the middle of Disney’s late ‘80s and early ‘90s animation renaissance, and it became an instant classic. It’s difficult to imagine any actor playing the doomed lion king Mufasa with the gravity that Jones brings to the role.
He was so memorable in the animated classic that director Jon Favreau brought him back for the CGI “live-action” version in 2019.
6. “Gabriel’s Fire” (1990-1991)
I remember being excited about this show when it came out because, come on, it’s James Earl Jones! He plays Gabriel Bird, a former cop who spent 20 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Gabriel doesn’t want to be released because he has become so accustomed to life behind bars.
As he readjusts to life as a free man, Gabriel devotes his effort to helping people who are victims of injustice. The show only lasted a season before ABC retooled it as the more lighthearted “Pros and Cons,” which also lasted a single season.
Jones won an Emmy for this show (and won another Emmy for a TV movie the same night). Here’s a memorable scene from the pilot demonstrating how Gabriel adjusts to freedom:
5. “Coming to America” (1988), “Coming 2 America” (2021)
Jones had such a regal voice and a commanding bearing that it made sense that he would play a king at some point in his career. He got his chance in Eddie Murphy’s delightful comedy “Coming to America.”
In the middle of such a wonderful cast, especially Murphy and Arsenio Hall’s broad comedy, Jones shines as King Jaffe Joffer. What makes Jones’ performance work is that he portrays the king so seriously; there’s no hint of irony in the role whatsoever. He’s brilliant.
Jones came back for the sequel in 2021 in what would be his last film role. You could see how frail he was.
4. “The Sandlot” (1993)
Even though “The Sandlot” came out when I was in college, I’ve always been fond of it. What makes the movie’s ending work so well is Jones’ appearance at the end as Mr. Mertle, a blind former professional baseball player. It’s little more than a cameo, but he’s perfect in it.
Patrick Renna, who played Hamilton Porter, told Rich Eisen that Jones filmed his scenes in one day, and all the child actors were starstruck at being on set with the man who voiced Darth Vader. When one of the actors stutteringly said, “You’re Darth Vader,” Jones replied, “No, I am your father.”
Mr. Mertle is a curmudgeon who later reveals his heart, and that’s an archetype that Jones would perfect throughout his career. He makes a small role totally memorable.
3. “The Great White Hope” (1970)
Jones won his first Tony Award for playing fictional boxer Jack Jefferson in “The Great White Hope” on the Great White Way. It was natural that producers would want to turn the play into a movie.
The film itself is no great shakes; it gets too lost in its earnest messaging to be effective as a drama. Critic Vincent Canby called it "One of those liberal, well-meaning, fervently uncontroversial works that pretend to tackle contemporary problems by finding analogies at a safe remove in history."
But you still can’t forget Jones’ performance. He brings all the intensity of his stage performance to the screen, and it led to bigger and better things for him. It also netted him his only Oscar nomination.
2. “Star Wars” (1977), “The Empire Strikes Back” (1980), “Return of the Jedi,” (1983), “Rogue One” (2016)
Obviously, Darth Vader is the role that most people associate with Jones. He’s such an iconic villain, and Jones’ voice acting is such a part of the success of the Star Wars franchise.
The tribute to Jones on the Star Wars site explains Jones’ origins as a voice artist:
Today, of course, it would be hard to imagine anyone else being cast as the voice of the first Star Wars villain. With his resonant bass register, Jones was uniquely suited for the role. “The technique about recording that voice was to keep it within very strict boundaries of inflection, and there was no way to enlighten the voice with awareness,” Jones would explain. “In fact, my job was to keep awareness out of Darth Vader’s voice – take all the humanity out of it.”
Jones was always very generous with his praise of David Prowse for his physical performance of Vader. “David Prowse worked very hard to create Darth Vader…I take no credit for the character. I think that performance is in your head. Vader is good proof that if you stay out of the way of a character…good, effective dialogue will evoke in the viewer or listener all kinds of wonderful things that come from the viewer’s mind.”
Jones originally didn’t want credit for the role; he thought of himself as “special effects,” but he had become so associated with the movies that he accepted it. There’s also no telling how much money Jones made off voicing Darth Vader.
“Darth Vader doesn't think he's evil,” Jones said. “And then the suggestion that he has not always been evil, so the story becomes, ‘How does one become evil and how is one redeemed from it?’"
From his first appearance in 1977’s “Star Wars” (aka “A New Hope”), he was the ultimate villain. Even as a kid, I could remember somehow liking him even though he was the “bad guy.”
Jones came back to voice Darth Vader in “Rogue One” — the only prequel in my eyes — and brought every bit of his vocal power with him.
Here's an audio supercut of every one of his lines:
1. “Field of Dreams” (1988)
Baseball is the easiest sport to mythologize. There have been plenty of inspirational sports movies over the years — Chariots of Fire, Hoosiers, Miracle, Rudy — but no baseball movie is as poetic as “Field of Dreams.”
Among the tremendous performances and eloquent dialogue (that, let’s be honest, saves an otherwise silly storyline), Jones stands out as Terence Mann, the enigmatic ‘60s writer turned irascible curmudgeon turned wide-eyed believer in the power of baseball.
We first meet Mann in grumpy-old-man mode with Jones delivering one of the film’s funniest moments as he demonstrates what he thinks about hippies:
Then Mann delivers the movie’s pivotal speech. It’s a tour-de-force monologue that packs a massive punch and changes the course of the movie. And Jones delivers it with the profound power that only a stage-trained actor like him can.
If there was any justice in Hollywood, Jones would’ve received an Oscar nomination for “Field of Dreams,” and he would’ve won. It’s his performance that gives the movie its heart and heft.
What are your favorite James Earl Jones performances? Let us know in the comments below — and if you want to become a PJ Media VIP so you can comment, sign up today, and use the code SAVEAMERICA for 50% off.
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