When an actor, or someone in the public eye sadly dies not only do you start thinking of your own mortality but what that person meant to you and the influence they have had. I was saddened to hear of James Earl Jones passing, for me personally the voice of Darth Vader was the thing he will be most remembered for. When I first saw Star Wars at the Christmas of 1977 the presence of Dave Prowse walking into the Rebel ship was a huge Darh Vader moment, but then we heard James Earl Jones speak Vader’s first words “Where are those Transmissions you intercepted?”, from that moment the voice told you so much about the Character.
A respected and well known stage actor, especially of Shakespeare in the 1960’s he took his first film role in Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove. He went onto do the Film Adaptation of The Great White Hope, in which he had previously starred in the play.
In 1977 he did the voiceover that would bring him world recognition. Originally uncredited on the first two films (because he saw himself just as special effects). For me his film appearances are what I remember him for. In John Milius’s Conan the Barbarian (1982) he played Thulsa Doom which not only brought his voice to playing the evil character but his physicality as well. The Hunt for Red October (1990) then as the voice of Mufasa in Disney’s Lion King (1994). In the 1992 film Sneakers which starred actors of the calibre of Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Ben Kingsley and River Phoenix Jones only appeared in the final scenes of the film, but in my opinion completely owned the part and the film in that short appearance.
In one of my favourite films Field of Dreams (1989) Jones acting alongside Kevin Costner as Mann who starts off as a disenchanted man. As the plot develops we end up getting one of the best Monologues ever, as James Earl Jones explains to Kevin Costner’s character why he needs to keep the baseball field that is in danger of making his farm bankrupt.
James Earl Jones will be heard as Darth Vader again I’m sure as he signed a deal with Lucasfilm during the production of the Obi-Wan Tv series, authorising that archival footage of his voice can be used in future to artificially recreate his voice. This obviously will not be the same but does ensure that in legacy the likelihood of anyone else voicing Vader is low.
His presence both vocally and physically will be missed and to me it feels like another Star has left the Star Wars Galaxy. I’ll leave you with the story of his fantastic appearance on the The Big Bang theory where he is ringing Carrie Fishers doorbell and running away legend has it that this was the first time he actually met Carrie Fisher, because in all the films they had never been in the same place at the same time. You can tell watching the episode how much fun he was having and how much he appreciated his fans, no matter where they came to discover his huge body of work he appreciated them all
