James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is a well-known African-American actor who was born Todd Jones in Arkabutla , Mississippi and raised in Dublin, Michigan by his maternal grandparents. He moved to Michigan around the age of 5, when he developed a stutter so severe he refused to speak aloud. He remained functionally mute for 8 years until he reached high school. He credits a high school teacher who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry with helping him out of his silence. The teacher believed forced public speaking would help him gain confidence and insisted he recite a poem in class each day. "I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school." Ironically, he is most famous for his deep authoritative voice.

His first film role was in Dr. Strangelove in 1964. He has appeared in many roles since, but is probably best known as the sinister voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films, Mufasa in The Lion King, a Disney animated feature, Terrence Mann in the popular baseball film Field of Dreams, and the CNN tagline, "This is CNN." He has performed considerable amounts of other voice-over work. He has also periodically performed guest voices on television's The Simpsons. James portrayed General Solomon in the computer game Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun, and author Alex Haley in the television miniseries Roots (TV miniseries), which was based on Haley's book. He also starred in the television program Under One Roof as Neb Langston, a widowed police officer, a role for which he received an Emmy nomination. He appears in television and radio advertising for Verizon. He also read the opening tease for NBC's coverage of the 2004 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Athens.

He won Tony awards in 1969 in The Great White Hope and in 1987 in Fences. He received Kennedy Center Honors in 2002.

External links

• Achievement.org photo gallery, full biography and online video