American actor starred in films including The Great White Hope and won two Tony awards in prolific stage career
James Earl Jones, the actor whose beautifully sonorous tones gave voice to Star Wars’ principal villain Darth Vader, has died aged 93.
Jones died at his home in Dutchess county, New York, according to an announcement from his representatives. No cause of death was provided.
Jones was not the original choice for the role of Vader: the British bodybuilder David Prowse was cast in the first film, released in 1977, for his imposing physique, but the film’s director George Lucas was unhappy with Prowse’s pronounced West Country accent. Jones was given the job of revoicing Vader’s menacing dialogue, creating an instantly immortal evildoer in the process. Hardly a major name at the time, Jones considered himself “special effects” and was not credited until the third Star Wars movie, The Return of the Jedi, in 1983. In all, Jones’s voice would be heard in six Star Wars films – the original trilogy, plus The Revenge of the Sith in 2005, Rogue One in 2016 and The Rise of Skywalker in 2019 – as well as the infamous 1978 Holiday Special and the Star Wars: Rebels TV series which ran between 2014 and 2018.
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