James Earl Jones was born in 1931 in Arkabutla, Mississippi, USA. At an early age he started to take dramatic lessons to calm himself down. It appeared to work as he has since starred in many films over a 40-year period, beginning with the Stanley Kubrick classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Probably best known for his role as Darth Vader (for the voice only, as the man in the Darth Vader suit was David Prowse, whose voice was dubbed because of his British West Country accent). Has appeared on The Simpsons a couple of times and played Mufasa in The Lion King. James Earl Jones will return as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.


Coming to America (1988): $900,000
Star Wars (1977): $9,000

Took acting lessons to control his stutter. Born at 6:05am. Had stuttering problem as a child and said very little as a child; still struggles with the problem and says he has to think about what he says carefully before saying it (impressive, since he is known widely for his voice). Son of prizefighter-turned-actor Robert Earl Jones, from whom it is said he was estranged long into adulthood. Graduated from The University of Michigan. Graduated from Kaleva-Norman-Dickson High School in Brethren. Callers using Bell Atlantic pay phones often hear Jones's voice assuring them "Welcome to Bell Atlantic", just before a female voice asks for a calling card number. His "death" was announced during a live broadcast of an NBA playoff game in April of 1998. The deceased was actually James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King. Narrated the documentary Black Indians: An American Story (2001) , which explores issues of racial identity between the mixed-descent peoples of both Native American and African American heritage. Jones himself is a Black Indian. Co-starred with Madge Sinclair five times. In the original Star Wars trilogy, he and Billy Dee Williams were the only black actors to play major roles. One of Billy Dee Williams's other roles was the title role in Scott Joplin (1977). Scott Joplin's ragtime music was used as the score for The Sting (1973), which features James's father, Robert Earl Jones. Appears in Robots (2005) with Stanley Tucci. In a television biopic of Peter Sellers, Stanley Tucci played Stanley Kubrick, who directed Peter Sellers in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964), which was also Jones's first film. On October 8, 2002 appeared along with Theo Lion from PBS's "Between the Lions" (2000) before the House Education Reform Subcommittee to explain the importance of supporting literacy programs. His parents, Ruth Connolly and Robert Earl Jones, separated just before he was born. He was raised by his maternal grandparents. On June 15th 2005, he was forced to leave the Broadway revival of On Golden Pond (1981) due to a bout of pneumonia. Has appeared in two films with Madge Sinclair where they play the main character's parents. In Coming to America (1988), they play the mother and father of Eddie Murphy's character, Hakeem. In The Lion King (1994), they play the mother and father of Simba. In Coming to America (1988), he appears with Samuel L. Jackson, who also appears with him in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), in which James Earl Jones voices Darth Vader, the father of original trilogy hero Luke Skywalker. In The Lion King (1994), Jones' character is named Mufasa. In Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005), Darth Vader is severely injured on the planet Mustafar, which necessitates the synthesized voice Jones provides. His vocal performance of Darth Vader is ranked #84 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time. Is a member of the National Rifle Assocation of America (NRA). According to Jones, when George Lucas was trying to cast the voice of Darth Vader, his immediate idea was to cast Orson Welles. However, he felt that Welles was too well-known for the role. So instead he looked for an actor with a deep voice, "like Orson Welles" which is how he got cast. Is a US Army veteran and former member of the 75th Rangers Regiment. First African American actor to play the President of the United States in film in _The Man (1972)_.