James Earl Jones Was Announced His Death Urgently

Jones died at his home in Pawling, New York, on September 9, 2024, at the age of 93. In a statement, CNN said that Jones “was the voice of CNN and our brand for many decades, uniquely conveying through speech instant authority, grace, and decorum. That remarkable voice is just one of many things the world will miss about James.” Jones’s alma mater, the University of Michigan, paid tribute to him by posting a “We Are Michigan” video narrated by Jones on X. The NAACP, SAG-AFTRA, The Public Theater, and MLB also paid tribute to Jones.The Empire State Building in New York City was lit up to resemble Darth Vader.Vice President Kamala Harris praised Jones writing, “[He] used his voice to challenge America’s thinking on civil rights and race, and he continued to move our nation forward through his art.”Former President Bill Clinton released a statement praising Jones as “a brilliant actor who brought to life some of the most iconic characters ever”. Actor Denzel Washington paid tribute to Jones calling him his “hero” adding, “I wasn’t going to be as big as him. I wanted to sound like him. He was everything to me as a budding actor. He was who I wanted to be.”Numerous members of the entertainment industry also paid tribute to Jones including George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry Jenkins, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Courtney B. Vance, and Alec Baldwin.

Following his death, The New York Times described Jones’s career as a “a prodigious body of work” and called him “one of America’s most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career”. The Hollywood Reporter referred to Jones as “one of the most-admired American actors of all time”.The Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw wrote, “like Sidney Poitier or Harry Belafonte or Paul Robeson, [Jones] was an African American actor with a beautiful voice which was the key to his dignity and self-respect as a performer; it was how his characters rose above racism and cruelty”, and described Jones as “movie royalty”. In 2011, Academy Award-nominated actor Alec Baldwin called Jones “one of the greatest actors in American history”.

Jones was recognized as a groundbreaker and pioneer for African Americans for his significant roles on stage and television.In 1965, Jones became one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama acting in As the World Turns.  Academy Award–winning actress Viola Davis said that Jones’s career reflected “black excellence”. Critic Clive Barnes said that Jones’s theater roles were “like a black avenging angel … Even when corrupted by misery, his presence has an almost moral force to it, and his voice rasps out an agony nearly too personally painful in its nakedness”. In 2022, the Cort Theatre was renamed after James Earl Jones, becoming the second Broadway venue named after a Black theatrical artist, the first being the August Wilson Theatre named after the playwright August Wilson.^[120] The Cort Theatre was the same stage on which Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958.