Actor James Earl Jones dies at age 93
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00I shall pray for you morning and evening.
00:03For over 70 years, he graced stage and screen with a voice that commanded attention.
00:08Don't you try and go through life worried if somebody like you or not.
00:15James Earl Jones was born in rural Mississippi in 1931, raised by his mother and his grandparents.
00:21As a child, he developed a debilitating stutter.
00:23You never get over it, really.
00:25You simply learn how to work around it, you know.
00:27A high school teacher helped Jones find his confidence and his voice.
00:31He fell in love with the stage at the University of Michigan and debuted on Broadway in 1957.
00:36Just on a block and then keeping them off me.
00:39His breakthrough Tony-winning performance came as boxing champ Jack Johnson in The Great
00:44White Hope, which was later turned into a movie.
00:47Because every time you push that pinched up face in front of me, I see where they got
00:50me.
00:51As his movie career grew, he continued acting on the small screen.
00:54I, the first celebrity guest on Sesame Street, I am the father.
01:02But it was a two and a half hour voiceover session from George Lucas that changed his
01:06life.
01:07So you hire a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan who stutters, and that's the voice
01:14and that's me.
01:15I got, I lucked out.
01:18The role propelled him, or at least his voice, to worldwide fame as Darth Vader in Star Wars.
01:25For the next 40 years, he excelled on stage, winning a second Tony Award.
01:33And on the big screen, a Navy Admiral in the hunt for Red October.
01:37I was never here.
01:40In The Lion King.
01:41You are more than what you have become.
01:44The voice of a network.
01:46This is CNN.
01:48And the voice of all baseball fans in Field of Dreams.
01:52People will come, Ray.
01:54People will most definitely come.
01:57He received an Honorary Academy Award, had a Broadway theater named for him, became a
02:02Kennedy Center honoree, continuing to work in new projects and revisiting classic roles.
02:09I'm only brave when I have to be.
02:11May I have your attention, please?
02:13On screen and in life, James Earl Jones was a king.
02:18The goal wasn't to be a billionaire, to be a Hollywood star, to be a part of good storytelling.
02:25The goal was about that.
02:26I found you!
02:27He found his voice, and we got a legend.
02:30Steve Patterson, NBC News, Los Angeles.