BREAKING: American legend James Earl Jones dead at 93

Famed actor James Earl Jones died on Monday morning at the age of 93, his representatives at Independent Artist Group confirmed to Deadline.

Jones was one of few to have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony). He also received three Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award, and was presented with an Honorary Academy Award.

Jones’ first appearance on screen was in the 1964 Stanley Kubrick film Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, and went on to appear in big-name films, being the voice actor for Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy, and staring as Mufasa in both the original animated Lion King and in the live-action film that was released in 2019.

According to Variety, Jones has over 80 film credits and over 70 television credits. He received a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement award in 2009, and an honorary Oscar in 2011. He also received a Lifetime Achievement Tony Award in 2017.

Jones was born in 1931 on an Arkabutla, Mississippi farm. He moved to Michigan to be with his maternal grandparents at the age of 5, with the shock of the relocation inducing a stutter that he later overcame in high school. 

Jones was also an Army veteran, joining the University of Michigan’s Reserve Officer Training Corps. Jones was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Army in the summer of 1953 and reported to Fort Benning, Georgia for the Officers Basic Course. He followed that with Ranger School. 

Jones was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 38th Regimental Combat Team, and his first and only assignment was to help establish a cold weather training command at the former Camp Hale in Colorado. He received an honorable discharge after the assignment as a first lieutenant.