James Earl Jones is DEAD to me

An acting legend.

I had no idea he was that old.

He had a great bass voice but couldn’t live forever.

The Great...

Incredible voice. I'll never forget that scene in Will&Grace where Jack was giving him notes on his acting(!!) and James tried delivering a line in falsetto.

Before I knew of him as a respected theater actor, I crushed on him in some silly 80s commercial pirates of the Caribbean type of movie. He and his big hairy chest and lusty laugh were oh so sexy!

Definition of awesomeness!

His acting was in the top “tir”.

Didn't he sell the rights to his voice to Lucas? Darth Vader at least will live on forever.

One of the most distinctive (non-singing) voices of all time. I remember reading that he wasn't even credited in the first release of Star Wars, which seems bizarre.

Strangely, I had a feeling about an hour ago that news of a big celebrity death was about to break, and I was just thinking about JEJ a few days ago (saw something Lion King-related).

ACTOR

So young.

I win.

And yet Keanu Reeves is still alive!!!!

dang OP you is quick

15 replies and no one's posted this yet?

Bumping to send the usurper away

One of the most recognizable voices of the last 50 years.

Aw, I loved him in “Conan the Barbarian”. He was something else.

RIP, James! You were a talented man and will be missed.

Luke, your father is dead!

R5, he was hilarious on that episode

"James Gurl Jones"

RIP. Great actor and a class act.

MUFASA!

Short and sweet

never heard one single bad thing about the man, he seemed like a gem.

Interestingly enough, I've been slowly making my way through "Homicide: Life on the Street" and I Just saw the episode in which he was a guest star, playing a snack food mogul whose $ got his son absolved of murder charges.

He was great, as always.

May he RIP.

Predictions for the next two celebrity deaths-Robert DuVall and Barbara Eden

Oh no.

What did he die of?

He died of us.

A class act

NYTimes obit.

When he addressed an Actors Equity group in the '90s and took questions, he was so thoughtful and humble.

Variety obit

R28: He was fighting an oil rig fire in the Gulf of Mexico.

HE WAS 93!!!

so sad, he lived a long and amazing life

I met him once at Newark, NJ getting off my flight

If you build it, they will come.

I will never forget the look he gave Phylicia Rashad during her very pompous rant on the theeatuh…

r38 the side-eye was priceless. He should've used his Darth Vader voice and said "bitch, please."

Has Kevin Costner commented yet?

There was no side eye, as fun as it is to imagine it.

I wasn't aware he was 90 yet. I just saw him this weekend in Field of Dreams.

A great actor, a great voice and a good person. It's nice that he got to live a good long life. RIP

[quote]Predictions for the next two celebrity deaths-Robert DuVall and Barbara Eden

James Earl Carter has the opportunity to do the funniest thing.

[quote]Oh no. What did he die of?

MEASLES, Rose!!

COVID, probably.

Once you are in your nineties, small medical issues can result in serious complications.

I saw him in Driving Miss Daisy.

Tomorrow on THE VIEW:

1. Whoopi will kick things off by saying she lost a very good friend, and then won't be able to continue because she will get all choked up. She will then point to the ceiling and say, 'Have a good journey'...

2. Joy will look to Whoopi and ask, "Who died ?"

3. Sarah will chime in and say, "I'm loved him in that baseball movie because I'm from the midweat. I grew up with depression and my brother is gay - probably the only Midwestern who has come out of the closet."

4. Alyssa will just smile and say she's embarrassed to say she had mistaken him for Clarence Thomas.

5. Sunny will wrap it up by looking very somber, and letting the audience know he was a special friend to her and her family. She will then say that he didn't wing enough awards in his life because he was a black man. Had he been white, he'd have dozens of Oscars, Tonys and Emmys.

He was no James Darren but at least we can move on now.....

Technically an EGOT but he was given his honorary Oscar and lost a competitive one to George C Scott.

It’s amazing to think he was on our beloved soap opera Guiding Light and his wife was played by Cicely Tyson. He replaced Billy Dee Williams in the role of Dr. Fraser and Cicely Tyson replaced Ruby DEE as nurse Fraser. That’s some high-quality star power. They were the first black rolls in daytime.

[quote] They were the first black rolls in daytime.

Pumpernickel?

R52 GD autocorrect.

*roles r51

Sorry r53. Couldn't resist.

Grown men who watch The View are sad simpletons.

Susan Dey is finding her deepest voice before issuing a statement of condolence.

Grown men who watch soap operas are sad simpletons.

Must be quite surreal to die knowing that your voice will still be widely heard generations from now. I suspect kids born in the 2100s will watch Star Wars and The Lion King.

Letterman Top 10

[Quote] Grown men who watch The View are sad simpletons.

Or simple sadtons.

Grown men who comment on DL are sad simpletons.

People who worry about what others like are fetid cunts.

Why are we shitting on James Earl Jones’s death thread?

R63, it wouldn't be a DL dead-to-me thread if it didn't veer off into petty squabbles about subjects unrelated to the newly-deceased celeb

His first film was Dr. Strangelove and his first starring role in The Great White Hope (1970) garnered his sole Oscar nod. Saw him on Broadway in Gore Vidal's The Best Man in 2008. Terrific actor and commanding presence.

From one feline king to another:

Nice tribute from Mark Hamill.

I always confused him with Colin Powell.

20 years ago this month, Jones was to star opposite actress Diahann Carroll at the Kennedy Center in a stage revival of 'On Golden Pond' for a limited engagement. It was announced earlier that summer, in July. There was talk it could eventually move to Broadway in the 2005-06 season, if it went as well as the producers planned.

Alas, it never happened - Carroll dropped out a week before it was to open and Leslie Uggams stepped in. According to Carroll's publicist, "An injury over the weekend aggravated a previous condition that left the Tony Award-winning star with a herniated disk and severe muscle strain."

A year or so later, the truth came out when it was said Carroll had been diagnosed with dementia shortly after being cast, and she had trouble remembering her lines and directions during rehearsals. Her daughter and the director of the show mutually agreed there was no way Carroll would be able to do the show for three weeks, and removed her from the show. Carroll was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her late 70s.

The show went on with Uggams, but never moved to Broadway.

R65 I saw him in “The Best Man” too; it was thrilling to hear THAT VOICE live. What a jam-packed cast that was…I saw it a couple of times with some cast changes—-Angela Lansbury,Candice Bergen, Eric McCormack, John Larroquette. I think Kristin Davis too, I can’t remember

I can't remember Kristin Davis either.

Now can we finally quit hearing his senile troll voice bellowing stupidly about cheap flavorless steamed beef, please?

Are you ok, r72? Can we call someone for you?

On an early syndicated episode of WML.

R73 Can you call James Earl Jones for him, and wait for the answer ?

You have to give it up to the man for rehabilitating himself after serving his sentence for the assassination of Dr. King.

R73, a maudlin thread populated by the Neo-Frauen needs at least some gentle kick to the cuntbone.

You know that.

Now you won't die of diabetes from the sugar overload.

Damn.

J.E. Jones was affiliated with the religious right for over 30+years.

He was a big fan of the Anti-LGBT 700 Club & appeared on it several times over the years.

Naturally, the self-hating DL will mourn over a bigot lover & trash pro LGBT celebs.

Nothing new to see here.

I will always remember him as the man in the bee costume in Africa.

R78 that’s disappointing. I wonder why he agreed to appear on Will & Grace then.

Hot when he was younger

[quote] J.E. Jones was affiliated with the religious right for over 30+years.

Link, please.

R80 90%+ of US actors are unemployed at any given time.

James most likely did the Suzane Somers thing (she tried straddling the pro LGBT Palm Springs community with the Trump MAGA crowds).

It doesn't always work. He was a card-carrying republican on most of the black celeb lists that I've seen over the years.

Doing Will & Grace most likely kept job opportunities for him going in the gay dominated North American theatre & big film projects while he kissed Pat Robertson's ass "behind the scenes" with his $$$.

Statement from LucasFilm

so MEAN R48

r22, he may have been a class act, but he was conservative.

[quote] A year or so later, the truth came out when it was said Carroll had been diagnosed with dementia shortly after being cast, and she had trouble remembering her lines and directions during rehearsals. Her daughter and the director of the show mutually agreed there was no way Carroll would be able to do the show for three weeks, and removed her from the show. Carroll was later diagnosed with Alzheimer's in her late 70s.

That wasn't "On Golden Pond." Carroll was supposed to co-star but dropped out due to a legitimate physical injury that hampered her mobility. In 2014, Carroll was set to play Lena Younger in the Broadway revival of "A Raisin In The Sun" starring Denzel Washington. Carroll had to drop out of that production because of the onset of cognitive decline.

James Earl Jones and Diahann Carroll co-starred in "Claudine" a charming Black cinema classic.

He was on The As The World Turns

R88 Guiding Light first. He replaced Billy Dee Williams on GL. Then he went to ATWT.

On Golden Pond with Jones and Uggams did move to Broadway for a limited run.

I've been watching him for decades, and enjoyed a lot of his performances. But there's one that gets a lot of respect from me, and that's the role of Barney Hill in the made-for-TV movie 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐅𝐎 𝐈𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 (1975). What's so impressive is his portrayal of Hill's terror at his recollections under hypnosis; his panic is contagious. Incredible range as an actor.

NYT A life in pictures

Rest In Peace, Mr. Jones.

It’s pretty amazing he and Billy Dee Williams played the same role on The Guiding Light (the Star Wars connection) and their wives on the show were Cicely Tyson and Ruby Dee. That’s some iconic casting within 2 years. From what I understand, only Billy Dee Williams’ footage is available because CBS would purposely tape over their shows only preserving a few.

Depending on the situation playing a regular character on a soap opera typical paid more than a role on a Broadway play, and you didn't have to worry about what your next role and paycheck would be. That's why many established actors do stints on soap operas.

He stopped me on the street in central park west 15 years ago to tell me my LLBean backpack zipper was open.

Don't forget his Othello opposite Christopher Plummer's Iago in 1982

He kept his private life private and kept his extremely conservative views to himself, not wanting to miss out on work because of them. He seemed rather inhibited as an actor,

I saw him in the original production of “Fences” in 1987 when his physical presence was still formidable and his voice was powerful. When I saw him as Big Daddy in a mis-conceived production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” in 2008, he was sadly diminished, the power was gone, he didn’t have the required energy and volume for the part.

But I have to say that for me he used his big body and big presence and big voice and actor’s technique as a distancing tool. I never felt moved by anything I saw him do, rather he always seemed hidden and opaque, relying on externals to wow audiences without providing anything of himself. For me, the revelation of his conservative views and his eagerness to hide them exposed what I was missing from his work : the feeling that there was a real person in there with a heart and a soul in the characters he played. He was all front.

He was a journeyman actor whose happy accident of an authoritative physical presence and a resonant voice allowed him to masquerade as a great actor.

James Earl Jones never really played vulnerable men. Harrison Ford, John Travolta, Leo Di Caprio, Brad Pitt, Robert DeNiro . . .never moved me.

There is no character more vulnerable than Othello, r99.

on film R100? Never saw him as Othello did you?

I was on a plane arriving in LA. Lining up to disembark- myself from the back economy section and the passengers from front first class section met up at the door. When my turn came I found I was face to face with James Earl Jones! In his big booming voice he said to me “After You!” and waived his arm graciously toward the door for me to leave before him. That says everything about the type of man he was.

But R97 he didn't keep his views "to himself".

His multiple appearances on religious right shows reveal where his loyalties lie.

They are pro death penalty for the past 30+ years & he lent his name, face & $$$ to their cause.

They were anti-abortion for the past 30+ years & he lent his name, face & $$$ to their cause (goodbye Roe).

They supported religious "rights" over LGBT rights for the past 30+ years & he lent his name, face & $$$ to that cause (the recent US SC baker case is now an official decision so a paid guest spot on Will & Grace to make any LGBT fans happy be damned)).

They wanted affirmative action overturned for the past 30+ years & he lent his name, face & $$$ to their cause (& to their success story).

They were supporting a fascist right wing takeover of the US S. Court for the past 30+ years & now they have it with help from JEJ's name, face & $$$.

The left wing Will & Grace Hollywood gang turned a blind eye to his religious right public appearance loyalties before he even guest starred on that show & other projects. Now many of them are worse off based on their sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion & income level.

Mission Accomplished. JEJ is the Hollywood equivalent of Clarence Thomas. I can't find one issue JEJ distanced himself from that C. Thomas has endorsed.

You seem like you're part ostrich with your head stuck in the ground about him. I have relatives that watch those shows & when they mention a famous person who popped up on them they are dead to me.

^ Whoops that should've been R98 not R97.

Ok r103 we get it now go die on your cross.

You have no argument with me, R103. I had heard for years about his conservative leanings, but since I don’t travel in those circles or choose to follow the places you sourced, I didn’t know the full extent of his lunacy and I doubt most of the public did. It wasn’t something he, his handlers or his colleagues talked about except as off-the-record gosssip.

I imagine that many reading through this post will be learning it for the first time.

[quote] I imagine that many reading through this post will be learning it for the first time.

*raises hand*

I hadn’t heard anything about him being a conservative.

r10, I heard a long time ago that he was embarrassed by Star Wars during production and asked to take his name off the credits. He thought the film was going to be a failure.

He says the Tea Party was racist, loves MSNBC. Doesn’t seem conservative. He also admired Malcolm X.

Numerous iconic roles and such a signature voice; however in addition to all that greatness, he will always be remembered on DL for his sheer astonishment of pretentiousness personified.

Maybe he was just a moderate with some conservative and some liberal views.

Some of you are acting like he was MAGA XXX

I found nothing to hint at him being conservative much less this crazy conservative someone is portraying him as. Receipts or STFU.

James Earl Jones was a not a fkin Maga. Bitches Bye. He was an old school black progressive just like Harry Belafonte. He may have stated some traditionalist views on marriage and family, he was born in fkin Mississippi in the 20s, but Maga or even conservative he was not. He was not even a mere democrat, this man was a liberal. One of my homegirls interned for Harry Belafonte when we were in college. Some of his views would make the most die hard liberal blush.

^ Left-wingers don't go on The 700 Club & other shows kissing Pat Robertson's ass time & time again decade after decade.

Not Rev. Jesse Jackson (to unite religious factions), not Gloria Steinem (to appeal to Eagle Forum women), not the Obamas (to get more black votes), not big time AIDS advocate Judith Light (even to appeal to "compassionate conservatives" on the issue), not Madonna (even to be "rebellious" or 'mysterious" in the public eye), no southern democrat (in recent memory) & even not dearly departed Phil Donahue (as an across-the-aisle move).

Try again.

So what he is religious. He wasn’t a fkin Maga.

He wasn’t even conservative. Next..

Wake up R116 You don't need to be MAGA to do damage.

It's only been around about 8 years.

Conservatives have been destroying the environment, civil rights, government responses, etc. for a lot longer than that.

He was The Man

R118 Fuck off you dumb ass cunt.

[quote]actir

Oh, dear.

12 Great Films

R110 So what if he watched some MSNBC?

I & many others might've watched hundreds of hours of Fox News in its quarter of a century existence (& when Rogers A. hosted it before the rebranding).

That doesn't make us republican voters.

The bottom line is you don't align yourself with the religious right side of the political spectrum for 3 decades plus unless you are supporting their right-wing causes.

If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck & hangs around other ducks than it's a card-carrying duck.

[quote]R115: ^ Left-wingers don't go on The 700 Club & other shows kissing Pat Robertson's ass time & time again decade after decade.

I cannot find any evidence that he did that.

Got a link?

R124 He wasn’t conservative you fkin manic idiot. He was a religious progressive. Do you realize he could have been hung for dating the women he dated and married when he started messing with them.

I was an elementary school librarian in a fairly poor area. I asked Mr. Jones, whom I didn’t know, if he would consider visiting my students. It was the time of Star Wars. He mesmerized the students with his Darth Vader voice and many stories. Over the years he came many times to other schools and classes to share his knowledge and warmth.

he could have been hung

Oh darlin', he was

- Cecilia Hart.

R125 We have more in common than you think.

Now where is that pop can?

No proof he did anything with the 700 club. Bye Felicia!

[quote]R125: He wasn’t conservative you fkin manic idiot.

I never said that he was. R115 made that claim, and I quoted him, asking for evidence of his assertion.

Do you not know what quotes are, and how they work on the DL?

R130 I don’t give a fuck. I don’t like you from your prior posts. Something about you rubs me the wrong fkin way.

Supposedly he had issues with black women.

Knew him when he taught at Yale drama school. We lived in the same, small building. So I saw him a lot. Always classy and always smiling. Even when I stayed up too late or made noise. A fine gentleman.

[quote]R131: I don’t give a fuck. I don’t like you from your prior posts. Something about you rubs me the wrong fkin way.

Can it be because at some point you got called out for cosplaying as Black, Mr "𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐭𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐨𝐩𝐥𝐞 Love mayonnaise so much"?

James Earl Jones’s Stage Career Was Rich, and Startlingly Diverse

R129 I had celebs on religious right shows back when I had a VCR LOL but I haven't had a working one in like 25 years.

Go to the 700 Club web site & get their phone # and /or their e-mail & tell them you're a big fan of JEJ & their show & you want to know what episodes JEJ graced the show with his right wing self. Then tell us their response.

R134 what is you talkin bout. How does that prove I am cosplaying. Only white people do that dumb shit. Fuck I look like, pretending to be a mafuckin white man on the internet. Where they do that at?

^^oh just fucking DIE ALREADY.

R138 When Jesus was on that cross they wanted him to die too. And no I’m not comparing myself to Jesus, well technically I am, but since you are so ignorant to wish death upon a stranger I remind myself what would Jesus do. I’m not going to curse or nothing. I will pray for you.

[quote]R139: I will pray for you.

Ha! I see what you did there. :D

R139 Are usually black LGBTs who can't have black rich & famous outed as being anti-gay or right wingers.

They worship the likes of Gloria Gaynor, etc. & don't care about our community.

Black celebs like James Earl Jones can do no wrong in their eyes.

Most celebs will have their TBN/CBN history scrubbed from the internet. You can't even find Dack Rambo slamming Larry Hagman or the gay community on any of those networks but his HIV poz ass did so. He even blamed being gay was because of his dead brother on those shows before he died.