The 93-year-old actor who lent his voice to Darth Vader in the Star Wars saga and Mufasa in The Lion King died on Monday in the United States.
American actor James Earl Jones, known for voicing Darth Vader and for his prolific career in theater and film, died on Monday at the age of 93, his agents announced. In addition to the legendary villain of the Star Wars saga, the actor also gave the voice of Mufasa in the cartoon “The Lion King”.
“Stuttering is painful”
However, nothing predestined him to become one of the most iconic voices in the history of cinema: by the age of 8, young James Earl Jones could barely speak due to a severe stutter. “Stuttering is painful in the catechism, I was trying to read the lessons and the kids behind me were rolling on the floor laughing,” he told the Daily Mail in 2010. Born in 1931 in Mississippi, a segregationist southern state, James Earl Jones moved with with his family in Michigan, in the northern United States, at the age of 5. He finally regains control of his speech through the recitation of poems, at the instigation of his English teacher, himself a poet.
Darth Vader's voice
His most iconic role would never see him appear on screen. George Lucas, the creator of Star Wars, chose him, after considering Orson Welles, to interpret the voice of what would become the most famous villain in the history of cinema, Darth Vader. “George wanted a darker voice. So he hired a guy who was born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, had a stutter, and that voice was me,” James Earl Jones said in a 2009 interview with 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 the recognition to go to the actor behind the mask, David Prowse, according to him. specialist magazine Far Out. Among his other prominent roles are King Jaffe Joffer in “A Prince in New York” or the villainous Thulsa Doom in “Conan the Barbarian”.