“American actor James Earl Jones, an imposing stage and screen presence who overcame a childhood stutter to develop a stentorian voice recognized the world over as intergalactic villain Darth Vader, died on Monday at the age of 93…

“His long list of awards included Tonys for ‘The Great White Hope’ in 1969 and ‘Fences’ in 1987 on Broadway and Emmys in 1991 for ‘Gabriel's Fire’ and ‘Heat Wave’ on television. He also won a Grammy for best spoken word album, ‘Great American Documents’ in 1977. Although he never won a competitive Academy award, he was nominated for best actor for the film version of ‘The Great White Hope’ and was given an honorary Oscar in 2011.” Reuters

Both sides praise Jones’s career and legacy:

“Jones’ long and successful career, considering his unpromising start, is just as unlikely as any role he ever played. He was born to a poor family, which his father abandoned before James Earl was even born, in Akabutla, Mississippi, a wide place in the road in the shadow of the Tennessee border, inhabited today be fewer than 300 souls. By the time he was six, his mother also left, leaving young James Earl to be cared for by her parents…

“In all this turmoil, it’s no surprise that young James Earl developed a stutter. That future voice of voices eventually went silent as James Earl went mute for several years. He only came out of his shell with the help of a high school English teacher, who saw talent in his pupil and encouraged him to read poetry aloud to the class. (This teacher deserves a medal and our gratitude.) An interest in theater soon followed.”
Larry Thornberry, American Spectator

“[Jones’s career] seemingly knew no bounds—more than 100 screen credits alone, a remarkable fact for any actor, but a particularly rare fact for a Black actor whose career got started onstage in the 1950s and on-screen in the ’60s… Yet for many of us, Jones was, first and foremost, a voice… Jones would say, across the many years that he was asked about his role in Star Wars, that he recorded his original performance as Darth Vader in only a couple of hours…

“A couple of hours was all that was needed. The point, Jones would say, was to limit himself to a specific margin of expression. Too much, and Darth Vader would be overly humanized. Too little, and audiences would forget that the man really was human, once—and miss the tragedy of the arc George Lucas would take decades to flesh out, the path that brought Vader from a frightened, vulnerable boy to an indomitable intergalactic terror. Because of Jones, everything was there from the start.”
K. Austin Collins, The Atlantic

“[Jones] was so much more than a voice actor… His Shakespearean performances on stage were magnificent — he was a particularly fine Othello — and he brought much of this gravitas and stately dignity to many of his on-screen roles… He became associated with sports films, too, with his parts in Field of Dreams and The Sandlot being all-American in both their scope and their writing; as he says in the latter, ‘Baseball was life, and I was good at it.’…

“Even if he might be best remembered for a villainous role (albeit one that ended in redemption), there was something reassuring about James Earl Jones, a sense of decency and authority that gave him a gravitas that few other actors could ever come close to reaching. He, and his remarkable voice, will both be sorely missed.”
Alexander Larman, Spectator World

“For years, we have talked about Black actors in Hollywood feeling pressure to put on a dress, sometimes for comedic purposes and other times as a result of the industry trying to demean Black men on screen. Did you ever see Jones doing anything like that? He played authoritative figures, leading the Imperial Army or even a sage old man giving life lessons. But he never played a fool. His dignity was always intact, and that can't be an accident…

“James Earl Jones represented the best of us. He wasn't just a voice or a presence in films; he was a representation of strength, dignity and excellence who spoke to generations of Black men about the importance of pride, authority and never compromising one's integrity. He defined Black masculinity for a time that needed more voices like his — loud, unapologetic and rooted in power.”
Preach Jacobs, Post and Courier

“James Earl Jones' range was as great as his voice was deep and magnificent. He played such different roles as Thulsa Doom in the original film adaptation of ‘Conan the Barbarian,’ Admiral Greer in ‘Patriot Games’ and several other adaptations of Tom Clancy's work, as well as lending his legendary voice to a variety of features from Disney's ‘The Lion King’ to narrations of dozens of documentaries and other productions…

“Hollywood is a bit messed up these days, but James Earl Jones was an example of what an entertainer could be: Talented, focused, and dedicated to his craft. The world of show business is now a poorer place for his passing.”
Ward Clark, RedState

“He liked to portray kings and generals, garbage men and bricklayers; perform Shakespeare in Central Park and the works of August Wilson and Athol Fugard on Broadway. He could strut and court lecherously, erupt with rage or melt tenderly; play the blustering Big Daddy in Tennessee Williams’s ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ (2008) or an aging Norman Thayer Jr. in Ernest Thompson’s confrontation with mortality, “On Golden Pond” (2005)…

“Under the artistic and competitive demands of daily stage work and heavy commitments to television and Hollywood — pressures that burn out many actors — Mr. Jones was a rock. He once appeared in 18 plays in 30 months. He often made a half-dozen films a year, in addition to his television work. And he did it for a half-century, giving thousands of performances that captivated audiences, moviegoers and critics.”
Robert D. McFadden, New York Times