James Earl Jones 1931-2024: How the legend overcame his stutter to become the voice of Darth Vader and Mufasa

10 September 2024, 13:17

James Earl Jones has died at the age of 93, but his remarkable voice lives on.

When James Earl Jones died this week at the age of 93, fans from around the world celebrated his incredible stage and screen career.

Jones was a two-time Tony Award winner and a key player in movies as diverse as Dr Strangelove, Field of Dreams, Coming to America, The Hunt For Red October and many more.

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But it was two roles where you don't even see his face that people most often associated with James Earl Jones. As Darth Vader in Star Wars (and many of its sequels) and as Mufasa in The Lion King and its 2019 remake.

Whether you're talking about the traditionally animated Mufasa or his CGI update, Jones obviously doesn't appear on screen in either version of The Lion King.

And while he provided the terrifying voice of Darth Vader, it was never him in the suit – or with the mask off. Nevertheless, that voice is instantly recognisable as belonging to James Earl Jones and no one else.

But the man who was so well known for his voice had to overcome a serious stutter that he suffered from since childhood.

During his life, Jones was incredibly open about his stutter and how he tackled it.

His stutter was no small matter. It was so pronounced that he stayed quiet from first grade until he started high school.

"Stuttering is painful," he told the Daily Mail in 2010 around the time he was starring on stage in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

"In Sunday school, I'd try to read my lessons and the children behind me were falling on the floor with laughter. Well, I knew I was funny. I still know why it is funny. I think stutterers are funny.

"And I know it's rude and politically incorrect to laugh at stutterers. But I think it is okay because I know why they're funny. They make people nervous.

"People think, when on earth are they going to get the word out, so they start laughing out of their own nervousness. But by the time I got to school, my stuttering was so bad that I gave up trying to speak properly."

Jones said in a 1986 interview: "When you're mute that long, you become very curious about expressing yourself. You're in need of a way to express yourself."

And salvation came with the help of a teacher by the name of Donald Crouch, who he later dubbed "the father of my voice".

James Earl Jones Explains Mastering His Stuttering (1993)

Crouch cajoled Jones into reciting one of his own poems in front of the whole class by impishly suggesting that the young James might not have written it. Saying the verse out loud from memory, he claimed, would prove he hadn't plagiarised it.

More than that, Crouch encouraged Jones to work on his stuttering by getting him involved in debating and dramatic reading, especially poetry.

Jones's favourite poet was Edgar Allan Poe, and he would later read 'The Raven' in the classic Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons in 1990.

The Raven (The Simpsons)

In 2014, Jones told NPR of the story of his stutter: "I'm so fascinated by it because I don't understand it.

"I didn't want to talk - bad enough that I just gave up. I couldn't introduce myself to people who visited the house, and it was too painful. I don't say I was 'cured'. I just work with it."

More than that, Jones credited his stutter in part for his acting career. He said in 1993 that his "appreciation for expression" came from his inability to express himself for so long.

"You have your feelings, convictions, feelings that you want to share," he said "and so as an actor, I ended up being able to share those spoken through other characters."