James Earl Jones, Original Voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa, Dies at 93

He was also considered a legend of American theater.

A wide smile and the voice of one of the greatest villains in the history of cinema. James Earl Jones, who in the original version did the voice of Darth Vader in the Saga Star Warsdied at the age of 93, his agents announced on Monday, September 9. He also played the character Mufasa in The Lion King.

Us Weekly magazine met him in 2016, and the actor, who was also a theater legend, said that people asked him “all the time” in the street to say the famous phrase “I am your father” (“I am your father”).

“Rest in peace dad”reacted with a broken heart, on X (formerly Twitter), the actor Mark Hamill, who played Luke Skywalker, son of Darth Vader, on screen.

The African-American actor, often sporting a chevron moustache, is known for his long career both on the silver screen and on stage. However, nothing predestined him to such a career. Until he was 8 years old, young James Earl Jones hardly spoke due to a severe stutter. “Stuttering is painful. In catechism, I would try to read the lessons and the children behind me would roll 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 northern United States, at the age of 5. He eventually regained control of his speech through the recitation of poems, at the initiative of his English teacher, himself a poet.