James Earl Jones has died

[OhMeadhbh]

I know everyone is talking about how he voiced Vader, but when I think of him, I think of Strangelove and Hunt for Red October. I didn't spend a lot of time in the fleet, but what I did was rather boring and/or annoying; the idea that something exciting would happen in the CIC is probably why I often think of the line "Now, understand, Commander, that torpedo did not self-destruct. You heard it hit the hull. And I was never here."

[OhMeadhbh]

Just read on his Wikipedia page that he made it through Ranger school in the Korean War era. That's an accomplishment. Several readers here will know that's not really an easy thing to do. Overcame stuttering as a kid. Went to Ranger school (as an African American in the 50s.) Performed Shakespeare and contemporary plays and worked in film. A true dude. Lifting one in his honor this evening (though I'm old enough that it has to be a non-alcoholic one.)

[aidenn0]

For me it's Sneakers "We are the US Government, we don't do that sort of thing"

[ChrisMarshallNY]

I think of Conan, and Coming to America.

I was told by an industry insider (taken at face value), that he almost never turned down a part, which drove his agent nuts. That's why he was in these kind of oddball movies. I suspect that Nicholas Cage is similar.

[ethbr1]

Because HN skews younger, I expect there are some out there who haven't seen "The Vader Sessions" from the early YouTube era, in which James Earl Jones dialog from his other films was spliced into Star Wars Vader scenes. I think it's a testament to his range:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6A0rwG39Jzk

[geocrasher]

"I told you to speak your mind Jack, but Jesus!"

I also am one who thinks of The Hunt For Red October. You already listed the best quote in the movie from him, but the above also makes me giggle every time.

[imiric]

To me he will always be Mufasa. Brilliant performance and perfect casting.

"Everything the light touches is our kingdom."

Still get shivers from that movie to this day. Nostalgia, sure, but it's truly a masterpiece.

R.I.P.

[nnf]

For me, it's Sandlot. Relatively small part, but it was impactful for me as a kid.

[bitwize]

He was also Police Chief Thad Green in the Mathnet segments of Square One TV. He only appeared a few times, but was unmistakable when he did. He also participated in early test footage for what would become Sesame Street. Film footage of him reciting the alphabet, in trademark James Earl Jones diction, was one of the things they used to research young children's response to educational programming.

[lagrange77]

I will always think of him as King Jaffe Joffer, Ruler of Zamunda.

[shagie]

I believe the appropriate clip to watch is Lisa and Bleeding Gums Murphy - https://youtu.be/PX05DJWNj3k

[themadturk]

The first thing that comes up for me when I hear his name (after Star Wars) is Field of Dreams. He made me laugh out loud more than once in that, my favorite baseball movie.

[iancmceachern]

I think of "Field of Dreams" and Patriot Games, and of course vader

[jcastro]

When Jack hands him the photos of Red October: "Jesus that's a big sucker."

[crtified]

James narrating Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven in the very first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episode (2x03), to the backdrop of the quirky and artistic early-Simpsons animation, was such a wonderful union of beautiful cross-generational zeitgeist.

[svat]

Here's a different reading by him of The Raven (not the one from The Simpsons): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXU3RfB7308 — he chooses to almost ignore the meaning and stick to a recitation, which is great: his voice perfectly brings out the poem's cadence and assonance.

Other readings of The Raven, for comparison: Christopher Walken [1], Vincent Price [2], Christopher Lee (build-up in intensity, unfortunately some background music) [3], Basil Rathbone (the opposite of James Earl Jones: in places almost like prose) [4]

[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wj1DRQs9AQ

[2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuGZ_wp_i9w

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BefliMlEzZ8

[4]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jOS2FlLgic

[danparsonson]

And still, for me, the best reading of that! There are many renditions out there by some very accomplished actors but I've never heard or seen a better one.

[lIl-IIIl]

My Simpsons memory of him is him coming up from the clouds as Mustafa, Darth Vader, and himself saying "This is CNN". But TIL it wasn't him but Harry Shearer doing an impression.

https://youtu.be/gc25oAJrKbM?si=nkcdAukLnfbXmkuN

[mjklin]

He also played the alien who prepared the “how to cook for forty humans” cookbook on Kang and Kodos’s ship

[woodruffw]

A slightly less cliche fact about James Earl Jones: his film debut was Kubrick's Dr. Strangelove, where he plays the bombardier on the B-52[1].

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSbPqin3L6E

[wisty]

The famous B52 cockpit - From wikipedia:

> Lacking cooperation from the Pentagon in the making of the film, the set designers reconstructed the aircraft cockpit to the best of their ability by comparing the cockpit of a B-29 Superfortress and a single photograph of the cockpit of a B-52 and relating this to the geometry of the B-52's fuselage. The B-52 was state-of-the-art in the 1960s, and its cockpit was off-limits to the film crew. When some United States Air Force personnel were invited to view the reconstructed B-52 cockpit, they said that "it was absolutely correct, even to the little black box which was the CRM."[17] It was so accurate that Kubrick was concerned about whether Adam's team had carried out all its research legally.[17]

Also IIRC it was the inspiration for the Situation Room. The President asked why Kubric could get a big room with all the screens to deal with a crisis, and he didn't have one.

[excalibur]

Just watched that for the first time like a week ago. Totally surreal seeing him as a young unknown actor in a smaller role.

[serf]

"Hey, what about Major Kong?"

a great movie with absolutely wholly innocent characters unknowingly contributing their own parts to the apocalypse -- I think about that a lot conceptually.

Even the motivations of Gen. Ripper are 'innocent' -- he just happens to have become a delusional psychotic.

[0xcde4c3db]

I recommend his reading of Frederick Douglass's "The Meaning of July Fourth for the Negro" [1]. The combination of Jones's voice and Douglass's incisive eloquence is really something special.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0baE_CtU08

[marnett]

Thanks for sharing. That was very moving.

[david-gpu]

For me he will always be Thulsa Doom from Conan the Barbarian. You need to watch that movie if you haven't already.

[dxbydt]

Saw that movie in the theater in my early teens. When he turns into a snake - watching that on a 30 feet high screen from the front row - scarred me for life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GF0Z5g0Wjuk

[_the_inflator]

I totally agree. He played a sadist, and the irony of this movie is that he rarely makes use of what people admire the most: his infamous voice. True uber-alpha in this movie, fantastic performance.

RIP!

[konfusinomicon]

its my favorite movie of all time. the soundtrack alone is worth the price of admission. its got comedy, drama, love, hate, lust, fear, revenge, and all the other feelings a movie can envoke. hey...black lotus, stygian, the best...this better not be haga...I would sell Haga to a slayer such as you?

[mesbahamin]

A delightful performance https://youtu.be/a7Mx9fGzAmM

[alexjplant]

I saw "Conan" a year or two after I first saw him in "The Sandlot" and lost it when I realized that the same guy that was doing battle with The Terminator was responsible for saving Smalls from a lifetime of being grounded... his voice made him instantly recognizable in spite of the wig and crazy costumes he wore in the former. RIP.

[agumonkey]

That movies exudes a soft mysticism that I find as rare as confusing.

[coldcode]

My favorite story from the CB radio era:

“I did that once when I was traveling cross-country. I used Darth as my handle on the CB radio. The truck drivers would really freak out — for them, it was Darth Vader. I had to stop doing that,” Jones told the Times magazine.

[iambateman]

You know he was good when the Lion King remake had a chance to recast the entire movie with actors like Beyoncé and Donald Glover and the casting director was like “well obviously we aren’t changing Mufasa.”

[runevault]

Such an iconic voice. And the fact he got to put voice to so many iconic lines that are hard to imagine coming from anyone else. His speech in Field of Dreams, obviously Vader's "I am your father". Basically all of his lines as Mufasa in Lion King.

I just can't think of any voice from the newer generations of actors/VAs that stands up to what he brought. And while his voice was incredible, he clearly mastered it and gave his lines the maximum impact they could have beyond the simple utterance.

[xavdid]

He's done a lot of great work. Selfishly, one of my favorites is narrating the University of Michigan (his alma mater) football hype videos and stadium announcements. Always felt unique and fun.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1PFH3w_b8g

[howard941]

To me he'll always be the "This is CNN" voice

[buttocks]

Or “Bell Atlantic”

[svat]

Here he is in 2009, performing Shakespeare at the (Obama) "White House Evening of Poetry, Music and the Spoken Word": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJybA1emr_g (Othello's speech defending himself: [1])

(Incidentally, it was on the same occasion that Lin-Manuel Miranda first announced he was working on a hip-hop album about treasury secretary Alexander Hamilton, to some laughter, before performing a sample: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNFf7nMIGnE — the musical came out six years later.)

[1]: https://www.litcharts.com/shakescleare/shakespeare-translati....

[liquorist]

He’ll always be the GDI’s General Solomon from Tiberian Sun in my mind.

[slavik81]

Tiberian Sun was the first computer game I owned, and his performance was practically the first thing I saw when I finished installing it. At the time, I didn't recognize him, despite being a huge Star Wars fan. https://youtu.be/LT6Y0EIMRiI

[kevinventullo]

Yes! I remember the cutscenes being pretty campy, but he elevated them.

[geenkeuse]

Cry The Beloved Country, based on the book by beloved South African writer Alan Paton.

They did justice to the book. He was spectacular in his portrayal.

As a South African it resonates deeply with me and is more relevant now, than ever before.

[CapricornNoble]

For a while I had "Infidel defilers...they shall all drown in lakes of blood." as my ringtone.

"What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?"

Such an accomplished and memorable individual. RIP.

[UberFly]

I saw him close up filming "Three Fugitives" with Martin Short in Tacoma, WA on a random summer day in 1988. He grinned and gave a peace sign to my friends and I. I don't know if they make them like him any more.

[kreelman]

I wonder if James Earl Jones passing deserves a black banner on Hacker News...? He certainly gave life to many characters loved on Hacker News..

[geenkeuse]

As a South African, Cry The Beloved Country resonates deeply with me. Thank you, sir, for all that you gave.

Read the book by Alan Paton, and you may go down a rabbithole.

They did the story justice with that movie.

[orionblastar]

At a young age, he had a stutter and learned to speak poems to get better at talking. He had the voice of God. RIP.

[sakopov]

Every time I see this man I think of this scene with Robin Williams [1] from The Angriest Man in Brooklyn. RIP.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZ2qRWPda78

[coding123]

He was 93, and of course this kind of thing is expected and we shouldn't be surprised by news like this, but somehow this news hit hard. I guess after 40, when your own personal heroes pass, part of you dies with them.