Jones, James Earl

(born January 17, 1931, Arkabutla, Mississippi, U.S.) American actor who made his name in leading stage roles in Shakespeare's Othello and in The Great White Hope, a play about the tragic career of the first black heavyweight boxing champion, loosely based on the life of Jack Johnson. Beginning in the 1970s, he appeared frequently on television and in film.

His father, the actor Robert Earl Jones, left his family before James Earl Jones was born, and the youth was raised largely by his grandparents in Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan (B.A., 1953), majoring in drama, and, after a brief stint in the U.S. Army, went to New York City, studying at the American Theatre Wing with Lee Strasberg. He acted in his first Off-Broadway production in 1957 and subsequently with the New York Shakespeare Festival in 1961–73. He won a Tony Award for his boxer role in Howard Sackler's The Great White Hope (1968) and later starred in the film version (1970). He received critical acclaim for the two-character stage play Paul Robeson (1978) and in the title role of Othello, opposite Christopher Plummer's Iago (1981–82).

A part in the film Dr. Strangelove (1964) began a prolific career in pictures for Jones, whose work includes Conan the Barbarian (1982), Matewan (1987), Coming to America (1988), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). He appeared as Admiral James Greer in the film adaptations of Tom Clancy's novels about CIA agent Jack Ryan: The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992), and Clear and Present Danger (1994).

Known for his deep, resonant voice, Jones was cast in many voice-over roles in television advertising and in films, both as a narrator and for animated characters. He is perhaps best known for giving voice to the villain Darth Vader in the Star Wars series of movies, which began in 1977.