James Earl Jones’ death earlier this week at the age of 93 drops the curtain on a remarkable life that saw the famed actor go from struggling with stuttering to becoming something of a beloved national narrator.
For many of a certain age, Jones’ voice is synonymous with going to the movies. In addition to being the voice of Darth Vader, he was the voice of “Mufasa” in the The Lion King, Terrance Mann in Field of Dreams and dozens of other parts large and small.
In addition to countless roles on Broadway, along with commercials and various other appearances, Jones narrated a King James edition of the New Testament – and was the voice of Pharaoh in Hanna-Barbera’s The Greatest Adventure.
Born in Mississippi, Jones endured a difficult childhood. His parents divorced. Then his father took off, followed soon by his mother. He was raised by a grandmother who he described as racist and who was quick to blame all the woes of the world on white people.
“My grandmother had the most dramatic effect on my life,” he wrote. “Because she set me in one direction, and I had to go back the other direction for my sanity, and for my ability to be a social human being.”
Our family of origin matters. A lot.
“My grandmother though, began to prepare in her own neurotic – and I think psychotic – way to face racism,” he reflected. “So she taught us to be racist, which is something I had to undo later when I got to Michigan.”
And yet, his imperfect grandmother was balanced out by his grandfather.
“Fortunately, my granddaddy was a gentle man, a farmer who taught me to love the land,” he wrote in Guideposts. “He was short and he had a prodigious amount of energy. Granddad’s Irish heritage came out in his love for language; during the week he used ‘everyday talk,’ but on Sunday he spoke only the finest English.”
Jones credited a high school English teacher with helping him overcome his stuttering, which had been so painful that it deteriorated into complete muteness.
“In Sunday school, I’d try to read my lessons and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter,” he once shared. “By the time I got to school, my stuttering was so bad that I gave up trying to speak properly.”
Donald Crouch was the high school English teacher, a retired Mennonite college professor, who encouraged Jones to write poetry and then read it and other poems before the class. The challenge instilled in him tremendous confidence and the speech impediment slowly became manageable.
According to reports, Jones became a Catholic during his Army days, which included high-altitude training in the Rockies. Having graduated from the University of Michigan, he was a commissioned officer – but eventually decided to exit the service and pursue acting in New York.
Speaking from his painful childhood memories, Jones once suggested, “I think a lot of the problems we have as a society is because we don’t acknowledge that family is important. It has to be people who are present, you know, and mothers and fathers, both are not present enough with children.”
The Mississippi native was fiercely practical.
“The world is filled with violence,” he once said. “Because criminals carry guns, we decent law-abiding citizens should also have guns. Otherwise they will win and the decent people will loose.”
When James Earl Jones was asked to record the New Testament, he said he dedicated the project to his late high school teacher.
“I thanked God for all the professor’s help and friendship,” he wrote. [He] had not only helped to guide me to the author of the Scriptures, but as the father of my resurrected voice, had also helped me find abundant life.”
Image from Getty.
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