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James Earl Jones, voice of Star Wars villain Darth Vader and Mufasa in The Lion King, dies aged 93
Acting great James Earl Jones, who voiced Star Wars villain Darth Vader and Mufasa in The Lion King, has died at the age of 93.
Jones, a longtime sufferer of diabetes, died at his home surrounded by family members, his agent Barry McPherson said. No cause of death was provided.
He appeared in Conan the Barbarian, played Eddie Murphy’s dad in Coming to America and starred in The Hunt for Red October and Patriot Games.
But it was his iconic voice as the villainous Darth Vader for which he was best known.
Jones with Star Wars creator George Lucas in 2007. Pic: AP
Jones poses with Darth Vader at the premiere of ‘Star Wars Episode II’ , 2002. Pic: Reuters
Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, Vader’s son in Star Wars, tweeted: “RIP dad.”
Jones was one of the few entertainers to have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards).
Celebrities paid tribute to Jones, with Colman Domingo, who stars in the recently released Sing Sing, saying on X: “Thank you dear James Earl Jones for everything. A master of our craft.
“We stand on your shoulders. Rest now. You gave us your best.”
The Empire State Building posted an image from earlier this year of the landmark in New York being lit up with a striking image of Lord Vader as part of its Star Wars dynamic light show event.
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A fan commented saying: “Some of our childhoods (mine) just died today. We’ll miss you Darth, and Mufasa. RIP.”
One fan hailed Jones as “one of the most powerful, evocative, emotional voices in cinema history” while sharing a clip of him playing Mufasa in The Lion King.
Jones was the only member of The Lion King’s original voice cast to retain his role for the movie’s remake in 2019.
Another fan described the actor “a class act” and “one of my all-time favourites.” They added: “RIP James Earl Jones. You will be missed.”
Fellow Star Wars actor Samuel L. Jackson previously said of him: “If you were an actor or aspired to be an actor, if you pounded the pavement in these streets looking for jobs, one of the standards we always had was to be a James Earl Jones.”
Jones arriving at the premiere of the Lion King in 1994. Pic: AP
One of Jones’ earliest roles was a small part in Stanley Kubrick’s famous Cold War satire, Dr Strangelove.
His long list of awards included Tonys for The Great White Hope in 1969 and Fences in 1987 on Broadway and Emmys in 1991 for Gabriel’s Fire and Heat Wave on television.
He also won a Grammy for best spoken word album, Great American Documents in 1977.
James Earl Jones with Luke Skywalker actor Mark Hamill in 1987. Pic: AP
Although he never won a competitive Academy award, he was nominated for best actor for the film version of The Great White Hope and was given an honorary Oscar in 2011.
Jones was “capable of moving in seconds from boyish ingenuousness to near-biblical rage and somehow suggesting all the gradations in between,” the Washington Post wrote in a 1987 review of Fences.