Meet James Earl Jones, the legendary actor who gave Star Wars’ villain Darth Vadar his deep, sinister voice. He received the SAG Life Achievement Award 2009 on January 25, 2009. See photos, video and a biography of James Earl Jones here.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) gives this annual award to an actor who exemplifies the highest ideals of the profession of acting. He was recognized for his “long and quiet devotion to advancing literacy, the arts and humanities on a national and local scale.” Actor, director and producer Forest Whitaker presented the Award to James in the live telecast of the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on January 25, 2009.
Jones has had a remarkable career in both stage and screen. Although he has never received an Academy Award, he has won just about everything else including, a National Medal of Arts, a Kennedy Center Honor, two Tonys, a Grammy, three Emmys, six Desk Drama Awards, and two Obies. Regarding the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award, Jones said in an interview,
“It’s a great thrill for me. I have been around a long time…So I qualify for a lifetime thing, but I’m primarily a stage actor. So I feel my ambition is to be a centipede, a monopede is an actor who does only movies. I’m a dualpede, a triplepede. I do commercials and animations. I’m going towards the centipede.”
As a biography, James Earl Jones was born on January 17, 1931 so his age is 78. He was born in Mississippi, abandoned by his father, (although reconciled in later years), and his mother relinquished him to the care of his maternal grandparents, in Jackson, Michigan, when Jones was five. This move was traumatic and caused Jones to develop the stutter and subsequent muteness which he so amazingly and impressively overcame with the help of a high school teacher who helped him regain confidence by reciting the poetry he had written before his class every day.
Jones got his start in acting in the 1950s, after graduating from the University of Michigan and serving, briefly in the military. He made his film debut in the 1964 classic, “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.” His first starring role, was as boxer Jack Jefferson in the movie version of the Broadway play, “The Great White Hope,” based the life of boxer Jack Johnson. Jones was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award. He received a Tony Award for his portrayal of Jack Jefferson in the Broadway play. (He received his second Tony Award in 1987 for his starring role in “Fences.”)
Subsequent roles furthered James Earl Jones’ rise to prominence, in movies such as “Field of Dreams,” “The Sandlot,” “Coming to America,” “Cry, The Beloved Country,” “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games,” “Clear and Present Danger,” and “Gardens of Stone.”
And, of course, the legendary actor has made numerous contributions to our pop culture. He is the unforgettable voice of Darth Vadar in the 1983 movie Star Wars and the Star Wars sequels. His voice is also heard in the Disney animated movie The Lion King, and The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride. His voice also delivers the CNN tagline, “This is CNN.”
More photos and a video of James Earl Jones are below.
James Earl Jones Photos
Photos: Wenn.com