James Earl Jones dies: American theater legend who was the voice of Darth Vader has died

American actor James Earl Jones, known for lending his voice to Darth Vader and for his prolific career in theater and cinema, died Monday at the age of 93, his agents announced. In addition to the legendary villain of the Star Wars saga, the actor also voiced Mufasa in the animated film “The Lion King.”

“Stuttering is painful”

Nothing predestined him to become one of the most iconic voices in the history of cinema: until he was 8 years old, the young James Earl Jones hardly spoke due to a severe stutter. “Stuttering is painful. In Sunday school, I would try to read the lessons and the kids behind me would roll around on the floor laughing,” he told the Daily Mail in 2010. Born in 1931 in Mississippi, a segregated state in the South, James Earl Jones moved with his family to Michigan, in the north of the United States, at the age of 5. He finally regained control of his speech thanks to the recitation of poems, at the initiative of his English teacher, himself a poet.

The voice of Darth Vader

His most iconic role would never see him appear on screen, however. Star Wars creator George Lucas chose him, after considering Orson Welles, to voice the man who would become the most famous villain in cinema history, Darth Vader. “George wanted a darker voice. So he hired a guy who was born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters, and that voice is me,” James Earl Jones said in a 2009 interview with the American Film Institute. The actor initially did not want his name to appear in the credits of the first Star Wars episodes, believing that his work was more like special effects, and preferring that the recognition go to the actor behind the mask, David Prowse, according to the trade magazine Far Out. Other prominent roles include that of King Jaffe Joffer in “Coming to America” ​​and the villain Thulsa Doom in “Conan the Barbarian.”