James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is a well-known African American-actor who was born in Arkabutla, Tate County, Mississippi, the son of Robert Earl Jones, and raised in Dublin, Michigan, by his maternal grandparents. His childhood nickname was Todd (as per ). He moved to Michigan around the age of 5, when he developed a stutter so severe he refused to speak aloud. He remained functionally mute for 8 years until he reached high school. He credits a high school teacher who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry with helping him out of his silence. The teacher believed forced public speaking would help him gain confidence and insisted he recite a poem in class each day. "I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school."

Trivia

• Jones's death was erroneously announced in 1998 by Pittsburgh Pirates radio baseball commentator Lanny Frattare when James Earl Ray died.
• The Simpsons episode where Bleeding Gums Murphy died has a tribute to Jones as Simpsons cast member Harry Shearer sends up Jones' three most famous roles: Darth Vader ("I am your father"), Mufasa ("You must avenge me, Kimba... dah, I mean Simba") and the CNN announcer ("This is CNN").
• His casting as the pompous King Jaffe Joffer in the 1988 Eddie Murphy film Coming to America, alongside the late Madge Sinclair, is believed to have inspired their later pairing in The Lion King.
• His name did not originally appear in the ending credits of Star Wars. At the time of the film's release, he felt he hadn't done enough to deserve a credit. His name was added for the film's re-release. But Lucas liked his commanding voice very much, since he had no intention of using David Prowse's during filming (who actually said his lines during production, which would be dubbed later)