A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A voice for the ages has gone silent.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: EPISODE VI - RETURN OF THE JEDI")
JAMES EARL JONES: (As Darth Vader) You don't know the power of the Dark Side.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, James Earl Jones died yesterday at 93. Here's NPR's Mandalit del Barco.
MANDALIT DEL BARCO, BYLINE: James Earl Jones had a powerful, authoritative, booming baritone, but as a child in Michigan, raised by his grandparents, he stuttered and barely spoke.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JONES: It was just too embarrassing.
DEL BARCO: Jones told Fresh Air's Terry Gross in 1993 that he was able to call out to animals as a farm kid doing chores.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JONES: But when strangers came to the house, I wasn't ready. I hid in the state of muteness.
DEL BARCO: Jones credits his high school English teacher with helping him overcome that.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JONES: We both realized we had a way of regaining the power of speech through reading poetry.
DEL BARCO: Jones found his voice. And after a stint in the Army, studying pre-med in college, working as a janitor and considering the priesthood, that voice led him to the theater in New York. Audiences found his stage presence commanding. In 1969, Jones won a Tony Award as best actor in "The Great White Hope." He played a champion boxer modeled after real-life champ Jack Johnson.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE GREAT WHITE HOPE")
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #1: (As character) Are you the Black hope?
JONES: (As Jack Jefferson) Well, I'm Black, and I'm hoping.
UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR #2: (As character) Answer him straight, Jack.
JONES: (As Jack Jefferson) Hey. Look, man. I ain't fighting for no race. I ain't redeeming nobody.
DEL BARCO: That's Jones in the 1970 film adaptation that earned him an Oscar nomination. He talked to NPR in 2014 as part of a series called My Big Break.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
JONES: "The Great White Hope" put me on the cover of Newsweek magazine. I said, that's something.
DEL BARCO: Jones, who was born in Arkabutla, Miss., was married twice and had a son. On stage, Jones performed classic roles like "Macbeth," "Othello" and "The Ice Man Cometh." He won a second Tony in 1987 for his role in the August Wilson play "Fences."
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "FENCES")
JONES: (As Troy Maxson) Come here, boy, when I talk to you.
DEL BARCO: He played an ex-baseball player who has trouble relating to his son.
(SOUNDBITE OF PLAY, "FENCES")
JONES: (As Troy Maxson) You live in my house. You sleep your behind on my bed clothes. You put my food in your belly because you are my son. You're my flesh and blood, not because I like you.
DEL BARCO: On film, Jones was a B-52 bombardier in Stanley Kubrick's film "Dr. Strangelove." He played the first Black president in the 1972 film "The Man." He was a disillusioned author in 1989's "Field Of Dreams. But he was best known as the voice of that villain Darth Vader, the role who played in five of the "Star Wars" movies, including "The Empire Strikes Back."
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "STAR WARS: EPISODE V - THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK")
JONES: (As Darth Vader) If you only knew the power of the Dark Side. Obi-Wan never told you what happened to your father.
MARK HAMILL: (As Luke Skywalker) He told me you killed him.
JONES: (As Darth Vader) No. I am your father.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JONES: "Star Wars" sort of put my name on the A-list for authoritative voices.
DEL BARCO: James Earl Jones became the voice of CNN, the announcer for TV commercials for Verizon, Goodyear Tires, car companies and the Yellow Pages. He even read the Bible for audiobooks and CDs.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JONES: (Reading) To him be glory and dominion forever and ever, amen.
DEL BARCO: Jones also had a playful side. He guest starred on "Sesame Street" in 1969 and "The Simpsons" in the mid-1990s. Jones said that throughout his life, he still stuttered, but he learned to control it, so much that you can't hear a trace in "The Lion King," when, as the great King Mufasa, he gives advice to his son, Simba.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "THE LION KING")
JONES: (As Mufasa) The great kings of the past look down on us from those stars. So whenever you feel alone, just remember that those kings will always be up there to guide you, and so will I.
DEL BARCO: James Earl Jones - as Darth Vader might say, the Force was strong with this one. Mandalit del Barco, NPR News, Los Angeles.
(SOUNDBITE OF JOHN WILLIAMS' "THE IMPERIAL MARCH") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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