Facts & gleanings

When I came to Michigan in the fall of 1967 to begin work on a doctoral degree in communications and theater, it was pre-Star Wars. But I was already acquainted with James Earl Jones’ acting skills.

While a graduate student in film at UNC-Chapel Hill, I chose a curriculum that offered a unit on social realism in mass media drama. Included was a CBS television series called “East Side West Side” that premiered in September 1963 as a vehicle for George C. Scott. He played the head of a NYC Community Welfare office that assisted people in need.

Jones starred in Episode 12, “Who Do You Kill,” with actress Diana Sands as his wife. They portrayed a couple living in a rat-infested Harlem apartment with their newborn daughter. When a rat bites the child, Jones runs frantically through the darkened Harlem streets rushing her to a local medical facility. The parents soon receive word that their baby has died. A distraught Sands becomes hysterical upon arriving at the funeral home to see her daughter in a small white coffin. Tom Griers received an Emmy Award for outstanding directorial achievement for the episode while Jones and Sands received supporting actor nominations.

When I began to teach film art at Michigan,” Who Do You Kill” was a syllabus staple for my course Social Drama Through Memorable Television Art.

FACT:

U-M student James Earl Jones, circa 1954, in a production of “The Birds.” (Image courtesy of U-M’s Bentley Historical Library.)

Jones, BA ’55/HLHD ’71, was born in January 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi, to Robert Earl Jones and Ruth (Connolly) Jones. His father abandoned the family before James’ birth. The boy was raised from age five by his maternal grandparents, Maggie and John Henry Connolly, in Dublin, Michigan. The experience resulted in a severe stutter and Jones remained mute until his high school teacher, Donald Crouch, prompted him to memorize and recite poetry for his classmates. The future actor had found his voice.

GLEANING:

In his memoir Voices and Silences, Jones reflected on his unusual passage from childhood stutterer to a master of language with a resounding bass delivery.

“I approached language in a different way from most actors,” he wrote. “I came at language standing on my head, turning words inside out, in search of meaning, making a mess of it sometimes but seeing truth from a different viewpoint.”

FACT:

After high school, Jones entered the nearby University of Michigan in a pre-med program. His extracurricular time was spent in debate and theater activities; in his junior year, he switched his major to drama. A two-year stint in the military delayed his degree until 1955 when he received his diploma from Michigan’s Department of Music, Theater, and Drama. He worked as a stagehand at the Ramsdell Theater in Manistee, Michigan, and acted in a production of Othello. Then he moved to New York City.

GLEANING:

In New York, Jones reunited with his father, not for paternal reasons but for fellowship and a shared place to live. Random jobs included work in radio dramas. He made his Broadway debut in 1957 as Edward the butler in “Sunrise at Campobello” and in an off-Broadway production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks.” Other impressive performances came in a number of Shakespeare in the Park roles including a repeat of Othello. A moment of epiphany occurred when his father saw Jones perform in John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men.” Afterward the elder Jones told his son, “You are an actor.” For the young artist, it was an indelible stamp of approval.

FACT:

“The Great White Hope” (1968) earned Jones his first Tony Award for leading actor in a Broadway production. In his portrayal of black boxer Jack Johnson more than his iconic voice was on display. Daily Variety wrote this about Jones’ performance: “His stage recreation of Johnson is an eye-riveting experience. The towering rages and unrestrained joy of which his character was capable are portrayed larger than life.” Jones’ physical qualities would come to attention in other performances, even in his late career, notably as Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.”

GLEANING:

James Earl Jones moved into his vocal fame with the Star Wars franchise as Darth Vader and as Mufasa in The Lion King. Critics regarded his instrument as a self-contained entity, referring to it as “the voice of God,” “like the roar of a lion,” and “the ideal gentility of a father addressing his children.” Star Wars creator George Lucas said of Jones: “He was an incredible actor — a most unique voice in art and spirit — a beautiful human being. He gave depth, sincerity, and meaning to all his roles.”

FACT:

Because the costumed actor David Prowse embodied Darth Vader on screen, Jones opted not to seek credits in the first two Star Wars films and accepted just $7,000 for his off-camera dubbing. Jones described the scenario: “When Linda Blair did the girl in The Exorcist, they hired Mercedes McCambridge to do the voice of the devil coming out of her. There was controversy as to whether Mercedes should get credit. I was one who thought, ‘No, she was just special effects.’ So when it came to Darth Vader, I said, ‘No, I’m just special effects.’ But it became so identified by the third one I thought, ‘OK, I’ll let them put my name on it.'”

In many ways, modesty was a central feature of Jones’ performance attitude toward his acting persona.

FINAL GLEANINGS:

Jones starred in John Sayles’ 1987 film Matewan. U-M is home to the Sayles archive. (Image courtesy of the Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers Collection at the University of Michigan Library.)

In a very personal reflection, Jones reflected on his life in an article for American magazine: “I reclaimed my voice from that long silence. I discovered the joy of communication. I wanted to make up for the lost years when I did not speak. Eventually, inevitably, you learn to lift your voice out of the silence and say: ‘This is who I am for what it’s worth. This is how I feel and this is who I am.'”

Jones died at his sprawling upstate New York farm after a long battle with diabetes. The praise for his remarkable life’s work was worldwide. NPR eulogized him as “a master craftsman at work. He makes young people aware of the vast possibilities of this business when you are a craftsman. The Broadway stage sees him as really colorless — not black or white.”

Jones’ remarkable award collection includes Tonys, Emmys, the 2008 Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award, and a 2011 honorary Academy Award for “consistent excellence and uncommon versatility.”

(Lead image: James Earl Jones waits for a pitch on the set of the 1987 film “Matewan,” directed by John Sayles. Image courtesy of the Screen Arts Mavericks & Makers Collection at the University of Michigan Library.)