James Earl Jones has died at 93. The iconic voice of Darth Vader and the man who played Thulsa Doom opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan the Barbarian, Jones was blessed with a deep, cavernous voice that made Vader a far more memorable villain than he might otherwise have been. (David Prowse, who played Vader's body-inside-the-suit, was miffed to learn that his own voice would not be used, but despite the fact that Prowse was a massive bodybuilder by the standards of the 70s, his voice was, shall we say, not that impressive.) Jones had more roles on stage and screen than I can possibly name here, and I have personally seen only the smallest sliver of his entire body of work. All I know is that the voice of Darth Vader will always ring clearly in my head, and there is no one who can replace this most magnificent of voice actors. RIP.
Wednesday, September 11, 2024
1 comment:
READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING!
All comments are subject to approval before they are published, so they will not appear immediately. Comments should be civil, relevant, and substantive. Anonymous comments are not allowed and will be unceremoniously deleted. For more on my comments policy, please see this entry on my other blog.
AND A NEW RULE (per this post): comments critical of Trump's lying must include criticism of Biden's lying on a one-for-one basis! Failure to be balanced means your comment will not be published.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I saw Jones on stage in 2017, in a production of Tennessee Williams' The Night of the Iguana in Cambridge. He played the elderly poet Nonno. Hearing that iconic voice in person was quite an experience. He was truly a legend.
ReplyDelete