How Darth Vader legend James Earl Jones overcame muteness and childhood trauma to become Hollywood voiceover megastar

UNTIL James Earl Jones stepped behind the microphone, Darth Vader had a menacing helmet, a sinister cape – and a cheery West Country voice.

Star Wars visual effects artist Ken Ralston later recalled of the overall effect: “It was hilarious and terrifying at the same time. We were like, ‘Is that it?’.”

At the time, only director George Lucas knew that he would replace the voice of 6ft 6in Bristol bodybuilder David Prowse, who was inside the costume, with James’s deep, commanding tones.

But when the actor, who died on Monday aged 93, did finally record the lines, even George was staggered as suddenly one of the biggest movie characters of all time came to life.

The director recalled: “He created, with very little dialogue, one of the greatest villains that ever lived.”

Incredibly, the man with the most famous voice in cinema was “virtually mute” from the age of six until he was 14 due to childhood trauma.

‘Peals of laughter’

He also had a stutter — and the technique he used to overcome it helped to give him that amazing deep tone.

In 2022 he signed a deal with Disney giving them the right to use AI on his voice in future Star Wars productions — so he will live on as Darth Vader “in perpetuity”.

Mark Hamill, who played Vader’s son Luke Skywalker, posted “RIP Dad”, on X/Twitter with a broken heart emoji.

James Earl Jones’ other great voiceover role was as another father — in 1994’s The Lion King.

Co-director Rob Minkoff said yesterday: “His portrayal of Mufasa was absolute perfection, teaching a generation what fatherhood is all about. He lives in all of us.”

James also made his mark as an actor being seen on screen, with acclaimed roles in films ranging from Field Of Dreams to Eddie Murphy’s Coming To America.

On top of that, he was regarded as one of America’s greatest classical actors of his generation, giving towering performances in Shakespearean roles from Macbeth to King Lear.

James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, in 1931.

His father Robert walked out before his birth to chase dreams of being “a boxer and troubadour actor”.

A few years later his mother Ruth left, leaving him to be raised by his maternal grandparents.

James later recalled: “I don’t know how I can ever express my gratitude for that, because my parents would have been a mess.”

When he was five, his grandparents moved the family from the segregated South to a new farm in rural Michigan. In the upheaval, James said, “I began to stutter badly.”

If he tried to talk, he would set off “peals of laughter” in classmates.”

He barely said a word for eight years but, he said, “talked quite freely with the animals on the farm.”

When he was 14, an English teacher was so impressed by a poem he had written that he urged him to try to read it to the class.

James wrote in his memoirs: “The words flowed out smoothly, every one of them. There was no stutter. All of us were amazed.”

Both he and the teacher realised that if he had written words in front of him, he felt safe. The teacher gave him a volume of Shakespeare and young James practised reading it aloud in the fields.

If I hadn’t been a stutterer, I would never have been an actor.

James Earl Jones

Soon, he was reading poetry on stage to his classmates, and he became the school’s champion public speaker.

He recalled in 1974: “Once I found out I could communicate verbally again, it became a very important thing for me.”

And in 2014, he said: “If I hadn’t been a stutterer, I would never have been an actor.”

James studied acting at the University of Michigan, then moved to New York, aged 24, to attend drama school.

His big break came five years later in 1960, when he was offered a small part in Henry V at New York’s annual Shakespeare festival in Central Park.

He was back each year and was soon acting in title roles, breaking barriers by playing parts traditionally only performed by white actors.

James wanted those roles because they were the best parts. He explained in 1980: “Most American black characters of my time were written around a basic conflict: The character’s problems with the white world.

"And frankly that gets a little dull. Human beings have more interesting problems.”

James made his film debut with a small part in 1964’s Dr Strangelove, and became the first black actor to have a recurring role on a US soap opera, as a doctor in As The World Turns in 1965.

But theatre was his passion, and it was also where he met first wife Julienne Marie.

She played Desdemona to his Othello in a 1964 production hailed by Life magazine as better than Laurence Olivier’s version which was on at the same time.

They married in 1968, the year that James became a Broadway star thanks to his role as a boxer in new play The Great White Hope.

‘He’s not human’

One reviewer called his performance “the most exciting by an American actor” since Marlon Brando in A Streetcar Named Desire in 1947.

He won a Tony award for the role, and when a movie version was made he was nominated for an Oscar.

But he had an even bigger break in 1977 when he agreed to spend two-and-a-half hours recording lines for a new space movie.

At the time, he did not think much more of it than the fact that it was “a job that paid $7,000.”

He explained years later: “I thought that was good money. And I got to be a voice on a movie!”

But with the exception of his death scene, Vader’s face would never be visible — so the sound of his words alone had to convey the villain’s evil nature.

Director George Lucas recalled of his choice: “I knew the voice had to be very, very special.”

James was always quick to insist that the way he spoke in the Star Wars movies was influenced by David’s imposing physical presence as the “dark figure”.

He said: “The key to Darth Vader is a narrow band of expression. No inflections. He’s not human.”

I was driving across the country with a CB radio and I used Darth Vader as my handle. It freaked a lot of people out.

James Earl Jones

James did not even ask for a credit as the voice of the Dark Lord until the third instalment of the original Star Wars trilogy, 1983’s Return Of The Jedi.

By that stage his voice had become probably the most-imitated in the world, thanks to one of the most famous lines in movie history, when Darth Vader tells Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back: “No. I am your father.”

Darth’s voice was so recognisable that on a road trip he once could not resist breaking it out for fun.

He said: “I was driving across the country with a CB radio and I used Darth Vader as my handle. It freaked a lot of people out. So I decided not to do that any more.”

The role also opened doors to other voiceover work.

That included being the voice of a US news channel — intoning “This is CNN” — and a 2002 14-CD collection of him reading the entire New Testament which sold more than one million copies.

But he also became a much-loved face on screen, in scores of films including Conan The Barbarian, The Hunt For Red October, Matewan and Cry, the Beloved Country.

Honorary Oscar

His first love, however, remained Shakespeare, and in 1981 the BBC wanted him to play Othello on TV. But actor’s union Equity protested the role should go to a Brit and eventually it went to Anthony Hopkins in swarthy make-up.

James, who was divorced from first wife Julienne in 1972, married actress Cecilia Hart in 1982. Like Julienne, she had played Desdemona to his Othello in another production.

They were married for 34 years until she died of ovarian cancer in 2016 aged 68. They had one son, Flynn Earl Jones, who is also a voice actor.

In his later years, James threw himself back into the theatre world, including an age-defying Much Ado About Nothing with Vanessa Redgrave at London’s Old Vic in 2013.

But he also spent as much time as possible at his farm in Dutchess County in rural New York State, where he designed his own family home using an old silo as a tower.

James, who was awarded an honorary Oscar in 2012, always brushed away questions about his retirement, saying: “We retire to our hereafter, if you believe in that. ”

He also said: “I’m not sure if I want to do it all because, you know, death is OK.

“It is something that happens to all of us — and that’s kind of glorious, isn’t it?”