James Earl Jones, the actor who portrayed Darth Vader in Star Wars, dies

2024-09-09 20:59:20

The American actor James Earl Jones was recognized in Hollywood for his discipline and quality of work. In addition, he stood out for voicing Darth Vader, the villain in Star Wars.

This Monday, September 9, the international media reported that Jones died at the age of 93 and his representatives confirmed it.

Jones was best known as a film and theater actor and had a prolific and varied career spanning six decades.

The actor also spoke King Mufasa in the film The lion king from Disney and the television network CNN during the reading of the Declaration of Independence at an exhibition, prior to the celebration of July 4, 2007, Independence Day in the United States.

His first film role was in Unusual Dr, by Stanley Kubrick, where he played Lieutenant Zogg aboard a B-52 bomber.

Military themes would be repeated often in his filmography, as was his role as Admiral Greer in the film saga Jack O’Rian (The Hunt for Red October, Patriotic Games, Close Peril), and as sergeant major i stone gardensby Francis Ford Coppola, in 1987.

But his most iconic role would not leave him appearing on the big screen.

George Lucas, creator star warshe chose it because “he wanted a darker voice” for the most famous villain in film history, Darth Vader, Jones recalls.

“So he hired a guy who was born in Mississippi, grew up in Michigan, stutters, and I’m that voice,” he said in a 2009 interview with the American Film Institute.

Initially, the actor did not want his name to appear in the credits of the first episodes of star warsconsidering that his work was more typical of special effects, he preferred that the recognition went to the actor behind the mask, David Prowse, according to the specialized magazine Far Away.

But it was Jones with his lapidary phrase “I am your father” when he revealed himself to Luke Skywalker, played by Mark Hamill, who gave one of his most memorable lines in cinema.

“#RIP dad”, with a broken heart, wrote Hamill himself on his social networks this Monday, September 9.