I know everyone is talking about how he voiced Vader, but when I think of him, I think of Strangelove and Hunt for Red October. I didn't spend a lot of time in the fleet, but what I did was rather boring and/or annoying; the idea that something exciting would happen in the CIC is probably why I often think of the line "Now, understand, Commander, that torpedo did not self-destruct. You heard it hit the hull. And I was never here."
Such an iconic voice. And the fact he got to put voice to so many iconic lines that are hard to imagine coming from anyone else. His speech in Field of Dreams, obviously Vader's "I am your father". Basically all of his lines as Mufasa in Lion King.
I just can't think of any voice from the newer generations of actors/VAs that stands up to what he brought. And while his voice was incredible, he clearly mastered it and gave his lines the maximum impact they could have beyond the simple utterance.
If we're purely talking voice actors, there are SO many incredible talents to choose from: Mark Hamill as The Joker for sure, Kevin Conroy as Batman, Tara Strong as dozens of characters, etc.
Hamill is a damned good voice actor, and I've really liked him in various things like as the Joker or even as the Watcher in Darksiders 1.
I wouldn't put him anywhere near the level of James Earl Jones.
I don't know. Mark Hamill is a voice acting chameleon. James Earl Jones was himself, which was great for many roles and impossible to improve upon for some. Their strengths lie on different axes.
Don't forget Clancy Brown, who voiced Lex Luthor, Mr. Krabs, and Red Death.
Clancy is an incredible actor in his own right both voice and general. I'll always have a soft spot for him as Kurgan in the first Highlander movie. He was so... unsettling.
I agree completely. JEJ is an impossible act to follow.
My opinion is that Dennis Haybert has surely 'risen to the occasion' quite well at the very least.
I'm not just talking still alive, I mean the younger generation. Like Morgan Freeman is also an iconic all-time voice. Is there even any actor in their 40s let alone 30s or 20s who have such an iconic voice dropping such powerful monologues?
At a quarter of a century younger, Keith David has, for decades, expertly conveyed the weight of his characters' words in a wide range of genres.
I just can't think of any voice from the newer generations of actors/VAs that stands up to what he brought.
Off the top of my head, there's Peter Cullen, Jeff Bennet, Frank Welker, Tim Curry, Tom Kane (prior to his stroke), Phil Lamarr, Mark Hamill, Clancy Brown, and John DiMaggio.
For me he will always be Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian. You need to watch that movie if you haven't already.
A delightful performance https://youtu.be/a7Mx9fGzAmM
Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe.
Saw that movie in the theater in my early teens. When he turns into a snake - watching that on a 30 feet high screen from the front row - scarred me for life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF0Z5g0Wjuk
Oh, that brings back memories. Somebody didn't get as far as #34 on the Evil Overlord List.
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvilOverlordList
its my favorite movie of all time. the soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission. its got comedy, drama, love, hate, lust, fear, revenge, and all the other feelings a movie can envoke. hey...black lotus, stygian, the best...this better not be haga...I would sell Haga to a slayer such as you?
I saw "Conan" a year or two after I first saw him in "The Sandlot" and lost it when I realized that the same guy that was doing battle with The Terminator was responsible for saving Smalls from a lifetime of being grounded... his voice made him instantly recognizable in spite of the wig and crazy costumes he wore in the former. RIP.
That movies exudes a soft mysticism that I find as rare as confusing.
I totally agree. He played a sadist, and the irony of this movie is that he rarely makes use of what people admire the most: his infamous voice. True uber-alpha in this movie, fantastic performance.
RIP!
A slightly less cliche fact about James Earl Jones: his film debut was Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, where he plays the bombardier on the B-52[1].
The famous B52 cockpit - From wikipedia:
Lacking cooperation from the Pentagon in the making of the film, the set designers reconstructed the aircraft cockpit to the best of their ability by comparing the cockpit of a B-29 Superfortress and a single photograph of the cockpit of a B-52 and relating this to the geometry of the B-52's fuselage. The B-52 was state-of-the-art in the 1960s, and its cockpit was off-limits to the film crew. When some United States Air Force personnel were invited to view the reconstructed B-52 cockpit, they said that "it was absolutely correct, even to the little black box which was the CRM."[17] It was so accurate that Kubrick was concerned about whether Adam's team had carried out all its research legally.[17]
Also IIRC it was the inspiration for the Situation Room. The President asked why Kubric could get a big room with all the screens to deal with a crisis, and he didn't have one.
“Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!”
"He'll see everything! ... He'll see the big board!"
Source for that last fact? I was curious which president, so I looked it up and the creation of the Situation Room was ordered by JFK who was assassinated before the movie was even released.
Conditional support for movie production (by the US military) is highly unethical in my view (even though, pragmatically speaking, it is likely a "good" investment of tax dollars...).
"Hey, what about Major Kong?"
a great movie with absolutely wholly innocent characters unknowingly contributing their own parts to the apocalypse -- I think about that a lot conceptually.
Even the motivations of Gen. Ripper are 'innocent' -- he just happens to have become a delusional psychotic.
Just watched that for the first time like a week ago. Totally surreal seeing him as a young unknown actor in a smaller role.
Star Wars was relentlessly changed by George Lucas - for the worse in my opinion.
Star Wars should have been changed to give James Earl Jones starring billing, instead of no credit at all.
That was his choice out of respect for Prowse.
"Respect for Prowse" doesn't override that JEJ should have had star credits.
Ridiculous.
James Earle Jones declined credit. It was his respect for Prowse. What world do you live in to say that the actor doesn't get to have a say in how he is billed?
Star Wars would have been a very different film it is had been voiced by Prowse, with his strong West Country accent.
"Luke, Oi am yer faaarther".
That Star Wars factoid does not negate the fact it was wrong.
"Voice of Darth Vader" is listed directly under "Darth Vader" in the credits of Star Wars.
The credits were changed for the special editions. He is not in the 'starring' section, but they did list him properly in the cast. https://youtu.be/sIPNormrPwg?t=2m30s
James narrating Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven in the very first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode (2x03), to the backdrop of the quirky and artistic early-Simpsons animation, was such a wonderful union of beautiful cross-generational zeitgeist.
Here's a different reading by him of The Raven (not the one from The Simpsons): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXU3RfB7308 — he chooses to almost ignore the meaning and stick to a recitation, which is great: his voice perfectly brings out the poem's cadence and assonance.
Other readings of The Raven, for comparison: Christopher Walken [1], Vincent Price [2], Christopher Lee (build-up in intensity, unfortunately some background music) [3], Basil Rathbone (the opposite of James Earl Jones: in places almost like prose) [4]
[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wj1DRQs9AQ
[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuGZ_wp_i9w
He also played the alien who prepared the “how to cook for forty humans” cookbook on Kang and Kodos’s ship
My Simpsons memory of him is him coming up from the clouds as Mustafa, Darth Vader, and himself saying "This is CNN". But TIL it wasn't him but Harry Shearer doing an impression.
And still, for me, the best reading of that! There are many renditions out there by some very accomplished actors but I've never heard or seen a better one.
He’ll always be the GDI’s General Solomon from Tiberian Sun in my mind.
Yes! I remember the cutscenes being pretty campy, but he elevated them.
I loved that DARTH FREAKIN VADER was the General in my campy game FMV cutscenes.
Tiberian Sun was the first computer game I owned, and his performance was practically the first thing I saw when I finished installing it. At the time, I didn't recognize him, despite being a huge Star Wars fan. https://youtu.be/LT6Y0EIMRiI
I have a vague memory of him reading books on some PBS show in the 80s. Am I misremembering this? I can’t find it in his filmography, though it may have been Fairytale Theater.
This was a show called "Long Ago and Far Away"
Yes! That’s it.
The fourth episode in the premiere season (1983) of PBS's Reading Rainbow featured a story narrated by James Earl Jones.
The video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QN9npF9A3M
James Earl Jones read the Bible as an audio book. Who - other than him - could pull such a feat?
I recently heard someone at church who listened to his audio bible, I thought that's such a great voice for it.
Gravitas itself, personified.-
He's done a lot of great work. Selfishly, one of my favorites is narrating the University of Michigan (his alma mater) football hype videos and stadium announcements. Always felt unique and fun.
When this comes on in the Big House you immediately feel like you want to run through a brick wall for the team.
I wonder if James Earl Jones passing deserves a black banner on Hacker News...? He certainly gave life to many characters loved on Hacker News..
Probably not unless he wrote a particularly relevant compiler in the 1970s, or something.
You know he was good when the Lion King remake had a chance to recast the entire movie with actors like Beyoncé and Donald Glover and the casting director was like “well obviously we aren’t changing Mufasa.”
Good on that casting director.
Bad on Disney for subsequently greenlighting Mufasa: The Lion King (2024).
To me he'll always be the "This is CNN" voice
Or “Bell Atlantic”
He was 93, and of course this kind of thing is expected and we shouldn't be surprised by news like this, but somehow this news hit hard. I guess after 40, when your own personal heroes pass, part of you dies with them.
I'm still reeling over Chester Bennington... (I'm 44)
The comments are here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41493976
Thanks! The current article seems more substantive so maybe we'll merge those comments hither.
I recommend his reading of Frederick Douglass's "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" [1]. The combination of Jones's voice and Douglass's incisive eloquence is really something special.
Thanks for sharing. That was very moving.
A lovely chap.
I find his lack of life disturbing.
His genie in Shelly Duval's Fairy Tail Theater: Aladdin (directed by Tim Burton) was terrifying and brilliant!
“By your command.”
Here he is in 2009, performing Shakespeare at the (Obama) "White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJybA1emr_g (Othello's speech defending himself: [1])
(Incidentally, it was on the same occasion that Lin-Manuel Miranda first announced he was working on a hip-hop album about treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, to some laughter, before performing a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNFf7nMIGnE — the musical came out six years later.)
[1]: https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translati....
Remember past kings live in the stars...
Every time I see this man I think of this scene with Robin Williams [1] from The Angriest Man in Brooklyn. RIP.
his lesser-known supporting role in the john sayles film 'matewan' is great, if anyone's looking for uncommon recs.
I guess there's going to be a flood of JEJ AI.
I've searched my feelings and they're all sad. :(
At a young age, he had a stutter and learned to speak poems to get better at talking. He had the voice of God. RIP.
RIP Chief Green, Terrence Mann.... I loved everything he did.
Well, let's say my name is Mr. Abbott
R.I.P. Mr Abbott.
I saw Dr strangelove on 35mm recently (the film stock was completely fucked but still what a treat). Great voice.
Very sad news. Very good actor - far beyond than just the voice of Vader. I would not be surprised he is a good bloke behind the camera, and sadly missed by those close to him.
Is this tech news?
Damn, RIP the voice of my childhood.
Who else do we have remaining? Morgan Freeman for one.
Maybe Eddie Murphy on the comedy side.
Cry The Beloved Country, based on the book by beloved South African writer Alan Paton.
They did justice to the book. He was spectacular in his portrayal.
As a South African it resonates deeply with me and is more relevant now, than ever before.
As a South African, Cry The Beloved Country resonates deeply with me. Thank you, sir, for all that you gave.
Read the book by Alan Paton, and you may go down a rabbithole.
They did the story justice with that movie.
I haven't seen shocks like this since taco night at James Earl Jones' house.
My favorite story from the CB radio era:
“I did that once when I was traveling cross-country. I used Darth as my handle on the CB radio. The truck drivers would really freak out — for them, it was Darth Vader. I had to stop doing that,” Jones told the Times magazine.
Rest in peace to a true legend.
Nooooooooo!
Lesser known role: he voiced Mara on the Disney Indiana Jones ride.
“The secret is never forgetting that you’re a journeyman actor and that nothing is your final thing, nothing is your greatest thing, nothing is your worst thing,” Jones said. “I still consider myself a novice.”
Beautiful advice.
One of my favorite scenes:
He will be looking down at us from the stars, along with the other great kings of the past.
Funny how voices are so impactful.
RIP
"Backup circuits are switched on. Still negative function"
I saw him close up filming "Three Fugitives" with Martin Short in Tacoma, WA on a random summer day in 1988. He grinned and gave a peace sign to my friends and I. I don't know if they make them like him any more.
James Earl Jones did the intro for the book "Poetry [to read] Out Loud." His voice is very present in those written words. Great stuff!
Damn, it's a sad day for voice acting. Mufasa, Vader, Strangelove - his voice demanded attention and authority. May he rest well
"round-abound" TomTom GPS ad!
For a while I had "Infidel defilers...they shall all drown in lakes of blood." as my ringtone.
"What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"
Such an accomplished and memorable individual. RIP.
and now he shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
I think of Conan, and Coming to America.
I was told by an industry insider (taken at face value), that he almost never turned down a part, which drove his agent nuts. That's why he was in these kind of oddball movies. I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar.
Ah, the 'working actor'. Gary Oldman (who also calls himself a working actor) kinda tanked his career for a while by getting typecast as a villain. Playing Sirius Black was basically autobiographical, and kind of got him unstuck.
Gary Oldman is one of the best actors I've had the privilege of seeing.
Consider that Mr. Zorg, Winston Churchill, and George Smiley, are played by the same person, is amazing.
Rosencrantz and Stansfield made him my favorite actor for the first decade of my adulthood. Zorg is okay. That terrible Lost in Space movie lowered his trajectory for a while. He’s been hitting home runs a lot since.
But if you hear him in interviews he thinks of himself as a working actor. He’s doing the job. But the right people think he can do a good job so he’s getting better roles.
I'll never defend "Lost in Space" as a cinematic tour-de-force in the traditional sense but I'll be damned if it isn't one of the most quintessentially-90s films ever made. It has Silicon Graphics logos and bubble-shaped silver electronics everywhere. William Hurt managed to find time to slip away from the "Dark City" set to make an appearance. Pre-Felicity Shagwell/post-Rollergirl Heather Graham fends off advances from Joey Tribbiani while the crazy guy from "Leon: The Professional" makes a bunch of bizarre wisecracking non-sequiturs. A brash Big beat remix of the original TV theme blares over the credits immediately following a fight involving a giant CGI (SGI?) spider.
I disliked it intensely as a kid but enjoy it a lot in retrospect because of my high-resolution nostalgia goggles.
> high-resolution nostalgia goggles.
Mine work in reverse, I guess.
I loved Space: 1999, when it was still being released.
I had occasion to revisit a syndicated episode, awhile back.
I stopped it after ten minutes.
Jackson Lamb is the Mr. Hyde to Smiley's Dr. Jekyll. It's just fantastic to see Oldman in both roles. Lamb is just a riot.
as well as James Gordon, Norman Stansfield and Harry Truman.
Gary Oldman is currently starring in this show on AppleTV called Slow Horses. Amazing actor.
He really disappears into whatever character he is playing. Truly one of the exceptional actors of our time. That show in particular highlights this very well.
Excellent show, fourth season just started
Michael Caine apparently is similar. I see no other reason why he would have done the (wonderful) movie "Water".
Don't forget Noises Off. Truly delightful farce, and his acting plus the physical comedy of the rest of the cast makes it happen.
There’s his infamous quote about being in Jaws 3:
I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific.
Probably, although it’s also well documented that Cage took a lot of roles to pay off his extensive debts after blowing through nine digits of his wealth.
Turns out real estate is what did him. And he refused to file for bankruptcy.
Given his behavior there for a while I was trying to do the math on how you blow through $65 million worth of... well, blow.
How about Coming to America combined with Star Wars?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXze55Z2GuY
My wife's cousin worked the case where they forced Nic Cage to give back the dinosaur skull he bought for a quarter mil at an illegal auction to the Mongolian government. He had to take every role ever offered to him because he made some amazingly stupid financial decisions.
The "Riddle of Steel" scene is just phenomenal.
For me it's Sneakers "We are the US Government, we don't do that sort of thing"
Love this movie, it really holds up too.
I live right near that plaza in SF where Sydney Poitier yells at Martin "its your Mother" with the Car phone in his hand.
Great movie
I love that movie too. It’s amazing how well it holds up for it being, in many ways, a tech-focused movie - I mean, yeah, the tech is very much dated and completely a product of its time, but it doesn’t look at all ridiculous. Undoubtedly probably helps that it was pre-WWW/popular internet.
I think it helps that the technical concept that drove the main plot was a very real and still-present risk to public key encryption systems.
Whenever the line „they don’t make them like this anymore“ comes up wrt movies, I think of „Sneakers“ and „The Hunt for Red October“.
I can still hear it. Some voices are just available to you, forever.
"We'retheUS GOVERNment. We don't DO that SORT of THING."
What a loss. He is one of a kind.
Here is the clip, at around 2m30s: (the whole clip is good)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74ocbvwam7c
"I want a Winnebago" ... "WHAT?!!"
I forgot he was in Sneakers! Fantastic movie.
Free on YT right now
Sneakers is climbing into cult classic year by year. What a great cast. Wow.
Yes the cast. Aside from James Earl Jones it had the following actors who at one point or another had Academy Award nominees (or won) for acting:
Robert Redford
Sidney Poitier
David Strathairn
River Phoenix
Ben Kingsley
Mary McDonnell
And In addition to those it had Dan Aykroyd and Stephen Toblowsky
"... I'll see what I can do."
For me, it's Sandlot. Relatively small part, but it was impactful for me as a kid.
We finished watching Sandlot yesterday with my kids for the first time. And then to hear this today.
The phrase "you're killing me Smalls" will be in your head forevvveerrr, at least, you should encourage its use by your kids.
Foooooorreeeeeveeeeer...
He was in Field of Dreams too, another baseball flick.
Every startup founders favourite movie.
To me he will always be Mufasa. Brilliant performance and perfect casting.
"Everything the light touches is our kingdom."
Still get shivers from that movie to this day. Nostalgia, sure, but it's truly a masterpiece.
R.I.P.
Saw it in theaters as a kid. It was one of the best movie experiences of my life.
Man, what I’d do to have a theatre experience like that again.
I feel like I’ve already seen just about every movie I see these days. I watch them to just tune out occasionally, like a safer version of alcohol. I don’t watch them because it’ll be moving, insightful, exciting, etc. It’s just coarse stimulation.
I really miss movies that left me feeling like I had a significant experience. It happens occasionally, but I feel like it used to be more common. The lion king was amazing. The remake was a kick in the pants.
My aunt used to take me and my sister to the El Capitan theatre to every big Disney tentpole that premiered there in the late 80s and early 90s. I think Lion King is probably still the best movie-going experience I have ever had and ever will have. It was the first one where I was a teenager and that was probably the end of my true childhood and when I started losing interest in stuff like that. I don't think any scene will ever again touch me like James Earl Jones voice booming from the clouds telling Simba to remember who he is. The swell of that Hans Zimmer score still brings tears to my eyes instantly every time I hear it.
I think of "Field of Dreams" and Patriot Games, and of course vader
"Back! Back to the 60s!"
People will come, Ray!
Because HN skews younger, I expect there are some out there who haven't seen "The Vader Sessions" from the early YouTube era, in which James Earl Jones dialog from his other films was spliced into Star Wars Vader scenes. I think it's a testament to his range:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk
I watch this at least once a year, it never gets old
That’s right Sally!
The editing choices still seem really, really good after all these years. The radio scene is hilarious.
Edit: thanks for linking this and bringing back so many good memories.
I'm plenty old enough but somehow have never seen or heard of this. Fantastic.
He was also Police Chief Thad Green in the Mathnet segments of Square One TV. He only appeared a few times, but was unmistakable when he did. He also participated in early test footage for what would become Sesame Street. Film footage of him reciting the alphabet, in trademark James Earl Jones diction, was one of the things they used to research young children's response to educational programming.
I loved Mathnet and Mathman segments. Still remember the episode where they figured out the hill a van drove up because of the tilt of the water in a glass.
I remember that one! Goodness that was a long time ago.
I completely forgot about Mathnet for many years - I'm not sure where I even saw it; My family didn't even have a TV (and I was too young anyway) for it's run. It was a delight when I discovered that my fever dream of a dragnet parody was in fact real. Great show, very funny, and good education.
Just read on his Wikipedia page that he made it through Ranger school in the Korean War era. That's an accomplishment. Several readers here will know that's not really an easy thing to do. Overcame stuttering as a kid. Went to Ranger school (as an African American in the 50s.) Performed Shakespeare and contemporary plays and worked in film. A true dude. Lifting one in his honor this evening (though I'm old enough that it has to be a non-alcoholic one.)
That's bad ass!
old enough <=> smart enough
wikipedia says "Jones was commissioned in mid-1953, after the Korean War's end, and reported to Fort Benning (now Fort Moore) to attend the Infantry Officers Basic Course. He attended Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab."
I will always think of him as King Jaffe Joffer, Ruler of Zamunda.
This one is my go-to. Also The Sandlot
When Jack hands him the photos of Red October: "Jesus that's a big sucker."
"I told you to speak your mind, Jack, but Jesus!"
"I told you to speak your mind Jack, but Jesus!"
I also am one who thinks of The Hunt For Red October. You already listed the best quote in the movie from him, but the above also makes me giggle every time.
Also in that scene when he slightly moves his hand to get Jack to back off from interrogating the admiral about whether he’d ever met Ramius - just terrific non-verbal acting that speaks volumes.
The first thing that comes up for me when I hear his name (after Star Wars) is Field of Dreams. He made me laugh out loud more than once in that, my favorite baseball movie.
"Long Ago and Far Away" for me.
"You took an oath, if you recall, when you first came to work for me. And I don't mean to the National Security Advisor of the United States, I mean to his boss... and I don't mean the President. You gave your word to his boss: you gave your word to the people of the United States. Your word is who you are."
I doubt anyone could pull the gravitas that he brought to the role of Admiral Greer.
I believe the appropriate clip to watch is Lisa and Bleeding Gums Murphy - https://youtu.be/PX05DJWNj3k
I always think of Field of Dreams. He was incredible in that role. He holds that movie together.
My memory of James Earl Jones is him in Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lh5wIQHFwOg
he was excellent in Conan too.
I liked him as Admiral Greer in the Jack Ryan movies (The Hunt For Red October, Patriot Games, Clear And Present Danger).
In Clear and Present Danger (1994), James Earl Jones (as Admiral Greer) dies in the middle of the movie. For some reason, and maybe because I have a hard time telling the difference between art and reality, I was fairly certain, for a long time, that the actor himself had died, and I would be regularly surprised when he would appear in new movies.
He was a fine actor, and a fine man.
For me it’s Coming to America, the King of Zamunda.
Reading Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven" on the Simpsons. It was shortened but great...
Hunt for Red October for me also!