In Memoriam: James Earl Jones (1931-2024), Part 3

 

[When I received the regular e-mail from American Theatre, it included a link to an article by Phylicia Rashad.  It was a memoir about her work with James Earl Jones on the Broadway revival of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in which she played Big Mama to his Big Daddy. 

[This was in the evening of the day that I posted “In Memoriam: James Earl Jones (1931-2024), Part 2.”  I immediately decided to add a third installment to the brief series so I could republish Rashad’s interesting memory piece.  Because the memoir is fairly short, I decided to accompany it with a few other pieces I though would be interesting and informative: two reviews of the production and a New York Times article from 1974 which was quoted in Part 1.

[The details of the 2008 revival of Cat, which premièred on Broadway in 1955, are laid out in Part 2 of “In Memoriam,” posted on 25 September (Part 1 was posted on 22 September), so I won’t repeat them here.  Many of Jones’s plays, films, and TV shows mentioned in the articles below are also detailed in Parts 1 or 2 for your reference.] 

Me and Mr. Jones
by Phylicia Rashad 

[Rashad’s memoir was posted on the American Theatre magazine site (AMERICAN THEATRE | Me and Mr. Jones) on 23 September 2024.]

A longtime admirer and colleague remembers the man and the questions that drove his work. 

James Earl Jones, the acclaimed actor who made his name onstage in The Great White Hope, Boesman and Lena, Fences, and countless other plays, including Othello, died on Sept. 9. He was 93.

[The U.S. premiere of Boesman and Lena by Athol Fugard (South African; b. 1932) opened Off-Broadway at Circle in the Square Downtown in Greenwich Village on 22 June 1970 and ran until 24 January 1971 for 205 performances. Jones, as Boesman, starred opposite Ruby Dee (1922-2014) as Lena under the direction of John Berry. The production won Obie Awards for Best Foreign Play, Distinguished Direction, and Best Performance by an Actress.]

It was in the spring of my sophomore year at Howard University [historically black private university in Washington, D.C., chartered in 1867; Rashad is a magna cum laude alumna of the class of 1970]. As I was leaving class, I heard a group of female students in a flutter. “He’s here!” “Did you see him? I’d heard that he was coming, but I didn’t think it was today!” “Well, it is today! He is here and he is magnificent!”

I had no idea of who had caused such commotion, but as I approached the exit, peering through the glass doors, I saw him: Mr. James Earl Jones.

The Great White Hope was in its pre-Broadway performance run at Arena Stage [1967-68]. He had taken time out of his theatre schedule to visit this historic institution of higher learning; and yes, he was magnificent! Statuesque, handsome, and strong, with an air of gentleness about him.

Fast forward to post-graduation, living in New York City. A friend had tickets to see the Broadway production of Lorraine Hansberry’s Les Blancs [Broadway’s Longacre Theatre, 1970]. Following the performance, we were allowed to visit Mr. Jones in his dressing room. He was very kind to receive us. My friend asked all the questions. He noted that, and with a smile turned to me and said, “You don’t speak much.” “Well,” I said, “my mother taught me that there were two times when one should be silent: When you have nothing to say, and when it’s not your turn.” He laughed at that.

More than 30 years would pass before we would perform in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Playing Big Mama opposite his Big Daddy, under the direction of my sister, Debbie Allen Nixon, had been beyond my dreams. But there we were in the rehearsal space, working it out together.

When I am asked, “How was working with James Earl Jones? What was his process? What was he like?” I pause before answering. My first observation was his interest in the “sinews” of thought. Pondering and probing the complexity of human behavior, asking questions of himself that few artists would consider, he’d come to one thought or question that he deemed most important in understanding who the person/character was; he would pursue that thought or question throughout rehearsals and performances. He had to be in the heart of the character. I would learn more about this later when we would speak about August Wilson and his portrayal of Troy Maxson in Fences [46th Street Theatre on Broadway, 1987-88].

His focus was relaxed, his level of concentration was astounding. Of everyone involved in the production (Tony, Golden Globe, and Emmy winners and an Oscar nominee among them), Mr. Jones was clearly the most seasoned and the most gracious. This was Debbie’s Broadway directorial debut. He adored her, and listened with rapt attention to everything that she had to say, eager to explore her suggestions while offering his own. Debbie enjoyed improvisation as a means of discovering “what lies beneath the written page.” Mr. Jones said, “I don’t know. I don’t do well with improvisation. I’ve never been good at it, but okay, I’ll try it!” He tried it and he liked it.

Mr. Jones was a “living legend,” and we all knew it. But this iconic status—well deserved by virtue of decades of sustained excellence in performance onstage, in film, and on television—did not preclude normal interactions with people. Being with Mr. Jones was easy because of his genuine interest in each person that he met. He was present, kind, and accessible.

During the time of our work together, through casual conversations, James Earl (as I had come to call him) would share life experience and reflections: the trauma of separation from his parents at the age of 5 years old, which resulted in stuttering; the embarrassment and anguish at being mocked that was the reason for several years of self-imposed silence; the study of poetry that led to discovery of his capacity for clear, unobstructed speech [see “Stage Unites Two Jones Generations” by C. Gerald Fraser, below].

His high school English teacher gave an assignment for students to write a poem. James Earl wrote “Ode to a Grapefruit.” Students were required to read their poems aloud to the full class. The inevitability of being mocked for stuttering was terrifying; but there was no way out. He stood before the class to read his poem, knowing that it would be a disaster; but to his surprise, there was no stutter. His speech was free! Speaking the written word aloud became a pathway forward.

We spoke about many things. Our conversations were always interesting. One centered around Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Fences. We spoke about the language of the play; how Wilson had captured rhythmic speech. James Earl said that in his early years as an actor, it was his father, the actor Robert Earl Jones, who told him to remember his Southern roots, because “the time will come when people forget this way of speaking and you won’t be able to teach them.” When I asked about his approach to developing the character, he simply shared this reflection, “Lord, forgive me for wanting so much; but I am so wanting.” He continued by saying that the most important thing for him to know about Troy was if he was really capable of killing his son. He never answered that question—not to me, at least. If Troy Maxson had been capable of murdering his own son, it would have been completely antithetical to James Earl’s thinking and way of life.

What mattered most in life to James Earl Jones was his family. He treasured his wife, Cecilia, and his son, Flynn Earl. He was passionate about his work, relished the creative process, and valued his friends and professional associates. He was compassionate, non-judgmental, knowledgeable about many subjects, well-versed in literature, critically acclaimed as an artist, revered as a human being.

[Phylicia Rashad is an Emmy- and Tony-winning actor and director.  Like my experience with Jones, I saw Rashad on stage twice, both as replacements for the originating actresses: in April 1988, as the Witch in Into the Woods at the Martin Beck Theatre (now the Al Hirschfeld) and in June 2009 as Violet Weston in August: Osage County at the Music Box.]   

*  *  *  *
“BLACK CAST SIZZLES ON B’WAY IN ‘CAT ON A HOT TIN ROOF’”
by Linda Armstrong

[I chose two reviews of the 2008 revival of Tennessee Williams’s Cat on a Hot Tin Roof to post with Phylicia Rashad’s memory article.  This one’s from the New York Amsterdam News of 6 March 2008.  I thought it would be good to spotlight the notice in New York City’s premier African-American weekly considering the historic nature of the production.]

“Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” sizzles with sexuality, frustration, guilt and anger. This historical production—which, for the first time on Broadway, is being performed by an all-Black cast—features powerhouse performances by Anika Noni Rose, James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Terrence Howard, Giancarlo Esposito and Lisa Arrindell Anderson.

It also has the innovative direction of Debbie Alien, who saw fit to have each scene of the three-act production introduced by a saxophone player belting out the blues.

From the time that the production starts, the audience is taken on an emotional rollercoaster. Emotions are vividly expressed by Maggie (Rose), as she speaks to her husband Brick (Howard). Maggie is an attractive woman, who has to endure being married to a man who will not touch her, a man who is disgusted to look at her because of a single act of betrayal she committed. The act she committed was so heinous that it also contributed to Brick beginning to drink alcohol. His alcoholism is so extreme that he has to drink until he hears a click in his head—a signal that his body has enough alcohol in it to escape from the problems in his life.

Maggie does most of the talking as the production begins, and she talks fast. She has to keep talking since Brick tends to give short responses. Maggie is a character who one feels a great deal of sympathy for because all the cards are stacked against her. She is a victim on so many levels. Her husband will not touch her. She is childless and the butt of cruel words by the family.

When most people think of the character of Maggie, they probably think of the movie version of “Cat on a hot Tin Roof” that starred Elizabeth Taylor in the role [MGM, 1958]. But, as you sit in the Broadhurst Theatre on W 44th Street, you won’t have time to reflect on Taylor’s performance, because Rose makes that character her own from the time that she takes the stage. She has such an energy, frustration and desperation about her that she clearly and brilliantly makes sure that the audience experiences everything that this character is going through.

In the opening scene, as I mentioned, she does a lot of talking and has opinions to share on everything from her brother[-in-law (he’s Brick’s brother)] and sister-in-law, to their five “no-neck children.”

There is simply not enough that one can say about Rose’s riveting and captivating performance in this role. An actress who most people associate with musical roles, such as her performing in “Caroline, Or Change” [2004; Rose won the 2004 Tony for Best Featured Actress in a Musical and the Theatre World Award], and in the movie version of “Dreamgirls” [DreamWorks/Paramount, 2006], Rose has without a doubt, proven that her training as a dramatic actress has not been wasted.

What just makes this production so wonderful is that you have a cast of Black all-stars who just click on stage. Each person holds their own with their character. Tony Award-winner James Earl Jones is absolutely hilarious at times and a bit shocking, as he does more than dabble in the expletives as his character of Big Daddy lets everyone know how he feels. Big Daddy is insulting and mean to everyone, except for Brick. He is horribly cruel to Big Mama (Rashad)—a woman he admits to disliking for 40 years.

As always, Phylicia Rashad, also a Tony Award-winning actor [2004, Best Actress in a Play for A Raisin in the Sun; 2022, Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play for Skeleton Crew], plays her character of Big Mama to perfection. She is clearly hurt by the cruel things that Big Daddy says and is very vulnerable to his verbal attacks. She is also someone who loves him despite of how he treats her.

Terrence Howard couldn’t have picked a better vehicle in which to make his Broadway debut. He handles the character of Brick very well. He plays the character pretty low-key and is only upset when anyone brings up his friend Skipper, who committed suicide. Howard’s delivery of the character is very smooth and he seems to have a good time on stage.

Giancarlo Esposito (Gooper) and Lisa Arrindell Anderson (Mae) are absolutely perfect in their roles as the money-grubbing son of Big Daddy and his money-hungry wife. Mae shoots pure venom whenever she speaks about Maggie being childless or Brick’s alcoholism and Gooper does not care if Big Daddy is dying, he just wants to make arrangements so he can get the 28,000 acres of rich land that Big Daddy has amassed in Mississippi.

Supporting cast members who give brief, but memorable performances include Lou Myers and Count Stovall, who play Reverend Tooker and Doctor Baugh, respectively.

There are many powerful emotions expressed throughout this play and one emotion that Alien makes sure to interject, just at the right moment, is humor. Just about each time there is a very tense moment, Alien allows a character to be comic relief and break the tension. She does a masterful job directing this production, which can be emotionally draining for an audience.

I’m not going into a lot of detail about the story line. This family’s problems are something you need to experience for yourself. Due to a lot of cursing however, this production would be inappropriate for viewing by someone younger than a teenager.

[Review-writer Linda Winer of Long Island’s Newsday reported: “For the record, those naughty words were the ones Williams wanted but couldn’t use in the ’50s” (“It's good to cross black 'Cat's' path,” 7 Mar. 2005).  That would have applied to Elia Kazan’s 1955 stage production and Richard Brooks’s 1958 film version. (Kazan also famously made Williams change the ending.)]

What kept going through my mind sitting in the audience this weekend, was that this production is brilliantly performed and such a pleasure to experience. It is just so important to show that our people can bring these classic works to life as vividly as any other actors can. I am so glad that producer Stephan Byrd pursued getting the rights for this play for 14 years. “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” is a masterpiece by Tennessee Williams that needed to be presented with our spin. It opens tonight [6 March 2008]!!! For tickets call (212) 239-6200.

[Linda Armstrong has been a theater reviewer for over 36 years, writing for New York Amsterdam News, Harlem News (A&E Editor), Headliner Magazine, Playbill Online, Theatre Week Magazine, Show Business Weekly Newspaper, Network Journal Magazine, Our Time Press (Column: “From The Aisle”), Neworldreview.net—Theatre Editor, and Broadwaysbestshows.com.] 

*  *  *  *
“‘CAT,’ FRESHLY SKINNED”
Terry Teachout 

[The second review I selected was from the Wall Street Journal of 7 March 2008.  The late Terry Teachout, the Journal’s chief theater reviewer, was considered a “conservative” critic.]

If you want to behold a great actor giving of his very best, the show to see is “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.” James Earl Jones has turned his back on Broadway in recent years—his last appearance there since the 1987 premiere of “Fences” [1987] was in a short-lived 2005 revival of “On Golden Pond,” a synthetic weeper that was unworthy of his towering talent [Pond was a limited run that was further shortened when Jones, 74 at the time, contracted pneumonia]—and so it is a pleasure to welcome him back to town in a role that puts him to the test. Needless to say, Mr. Jones plays Big Daddy, the cancer-ridden plantation owner whose greedy children can barely wait to gobble up his estate, and watching him tear through that giant-sized part is like standing in the path of a cannonball. Alas, you’ll have to pay a high price for the privilege of seeing Mr. Jones strut his stuff, because much of the rest of this unfortunate production borders at times on the downright amateurish.

The amateur-in-chief is Terrence Howard, the erstwhile star of “Hustle & Flow” [2005, Paramount Classics] who is making his stage debut—not his Broadway debut, mind you, but his stage debut—in the role of Brick, Big Daddy’s favorite son. Mr. Howard is the latest in a long line of inexperienced innocents from Hollywood who have been offered up as burnt sacrifices to the gods of the box office, and the best I can say about his vain attempt to make an impression is that he must have had a lot of nerve to think that he could get away with sharing a curtain call with Mr. Jones. His performance is slack, flat and underprojected, and it leaves a yawning hole at the center of Tennessee Williams’s play that nothing could possibly fill.

So far as I know, this is the first all-black professional production of “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof,” and it’s easy to imagine how well such a concept might have worked had it been executed by a first-rate director. Instead we get Debbie Allen, whose experience at the helm of various sitcoms and musical comedies did not prepare her for the challenge of making sense out of a grossly overwritten melodrama whose verbal extravagance approaches the operatic. Ms. Allen’s way of putting a black spin on “Cat” runs more to such condescendingly on-the-nose directorial details as having a saxophonist wander across the stage at the start of each act, playing hot licks in order to reassure the audience that this production will be racially correct.

Not only is Ms. Allen’s staging ludicrously broad, but I assume that she is at least partly to blame for the caricature-ridden acting of Anika Noni Rose as Maggie and Lisa Arrindell Anderson as Mae, both of whom made me cringe. (Not so the always satisfying Phylicia Rashad, whose Big Mama is a bit overdrawn but still affecting.) As for Ray Klausen’s dull set and William H. Grant III’s crass lighting, both are more like what you might expect to see at a second-tier regional theater rather than in a high-profile Broadway show.

Even so, you’ve got to catch this “Cat,” for Mr. Jones’s colossal performance is the stuff of stage legend. No sooner does the second act get under way than he strides into Brick’s bedroom, puffing on a 50-buck cigar and ogling Maggie from eyebrows to toenails, and from there to the end of the act you won’t want to waste a second looking at or listening to anyone else. Mr. Jones gets Big Daddy—the pride, the contempt, the half-concealed terror—and lines that in anyone else’s mouth might sound stilted come rolling out of him like lava from a volcano. As long as I live, I’ll never forget the way that Mr. Jones spit out his shocking condemnation of Big Mama: “I haven’t been able to stand the sight, sound, or smell of that woman for forty years now!—even when I laid her!—regular as a piston.

What to do? You might want to consider skipping the hour-long first act and showing up at intermission, just in time to see Mr. Jones make his entrance. You’ll still get your money’s worth.

[Terry Teachout (1956-2022), the Wall Street Journal’s drama critic from 2003 until his death, blogged about theater and the other arts.] 

*  *  *  *
“STAGE UNITES TWO JONES GENERATIONS”
by C. Gerald Fraser 

[This article, which, among other topics, touches on the estrangement and reconnection of James Earl Jones and Robert Earl Jones, his father.  It ran in the New York Times of 11 February 1974.]

Nineteen years ago, James Earl Jones, then a 24‐year‐old fledgling actor, came to New York from Michigan and watched his father, Robert Earl Jones [1910-2006], play the role of Joe Mott — a secondary character in “The Iceman Cometh.” He had come seeking two goals. One was work in the theater, the other was to get to know his father, from whom he had been separated since birth.

[The production of Eugene O’Neill’s Iceman in which Robert Earl Jones played Joe Mott was staged by José Quintero (Panamanian-born; 1924-1999) at the Off-Broadway Circle in the Square Theatre Downtown (in Greenwich Village) from May to December 1956 (256 performances). Jason Robards played Hickey, the role James Earl Jones played in 1973.

[The production of Iceman in which James Earl Jones performed was staged at Circle’s theater district house from 13 December 1973-24 February 1974 (14 previews and 85 performances). It was directed by Theodore Mann (1924-2012), co-founder of Circle in the Square, with a scenic design by Clarke Dunham, costume design by Carrie F. Robbins, and lighting design by Jules Fisher. Mott was played by Arthur French and Hugo Kalmar was played by David Margulies—one of my acting teachers at the time.]

Today, James Earl Jones is playing Hickey—the lead—in “Iceman,” and there has been an interweaving of the goals in James Earl Jones's life. He found his father through the theater and found the theater through his father.

Robert Earl Jones, who turned 64 a week ago yesterday (“I was horn in 1910, the year Jack Johnson [1878-1946; the real-life boxer on whom was based James Earl Jones’s character in The Great White Hope] won the title”) begins the story of the father‐son relationship in late 1930 or early 1931 in Mississippi. His wife was then pregnant with James, and Robert Earl Jones left his family to go north—to Memphis.

He worked in Memphis for the railroad until the Depression [1929-41] cut out his job and he moved to Chicago “to seek my fortune as a prize fighter.”

In Chicago, he said, “I paid $50—it was a lot of money in that period—to Evangeline Adams [1868-1932], who was on the radio as an astrologist. I believe in astrology. And she said ‘you'll find it better before the masses.’ She said ‘you have something, and I don't know what it is, and you'll do it before the masses.’”

After Chicago, Robert Earl Jones moved to New York, where in the early thirties he got a job with the Federal Works Progress Administration working with youths in recreation.

The poet‐playwright Langston Hughes [1901-67; part of the Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1930s)] asked to use the group to put on a one‐act play. After three months' rehearsals, the protagonist got a job, Mr. Jones said, and he was asked to take over the role. “It was kind of natural. Langston Hughes's aunt, Mrs. Toy Harper, taught me how to read my first poem: ‘I am a Negro black as the night is black/Black like the depth of my Africa’ and several other poems. It was poetic drama, put together by several of his poems.

“We linked them together by a narrative and I was that narrator.” From that start he began a theatrical career that has kept him active on stage and in television and the movies. (He can currently be seen in two new pictures “The Sting” [1973, Universal Pictures] and “Willie Dynamite” [1974, Universal Pictures].)

James Earl Jones, meanwhile, left Mississippi as a child and went to live in Michigan with his maternal grandmother, who raised all of her three daughters' children. He had not ever seen his father.

“I knew of him as an actor,” he said. “But, you see, being told about dad being an actor is one thing, but being in the high school library one day and opening up and seeing it right there in print had a big impact on me. He was in the production of “Strange Fruit” by Lillian Smith, with Mel Ferrer and Jane Wyman [Broadway; 29 November 1945-19 January 1946; credited as Earl Jones]. That impressed me.”

Sitting in his subterranean dressing room at the Circle in the Square Theater he sipped tea and talked about how he got into acting.

“There are two things, I'll say aside from the old legendary thing of following in the father's footsteps. One is that from the age of 8 to 14, I guess, I was practically incommunicado, literally, because of being a stammerer. Once I got to high school and through reading poetry, starting with my own poetry, which I realized I didn't stutter or stammer at, and my professor, Donald Crouch [1891-1982], would encourage me to read poetry, just discovering the joy of communicating set it up for me, I think. In a very personal way, once I found out I could communicate verbally, again, it became a very important thing for me, like making up for lost time, making up for the years that I didn't speak.”

James Earl Jones continued: “Being a country boy, it wasn't easy for me to think about making a living in the world of business. It was very difficult to think about making a living in the world of science, as I sort of entertained when I wanted to he a doctor. None of that was easy.

“But the idea of making one's way as an artist did make some sense to me. I remember enjoying—aside from writing poetry—reading poetry. I enjoyed drawing, painting, that sort of thing.

And so it was that after graduating from the University of Michigan, and serving as an Army officer he came to New York to work and to get to know his father.

[Jones matriculated at UM in 1949, but in 1953, he left school without getting a degree. He’d joined the university’s Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) and left to join the army, where he remained for two years, reaching the rank of first lieutenant. In 1955, he returned to UM, finished his degree, and graduated. At that point, he went to New York City, where he reconnected with his father and started a career as a professional actor.]

Since then the two have gotten to know each other and have performed in the same production three times: in “Moon on a Rainbow Shawl,” “Infidel Caesar,” and “Of Mice and Men.”

[Moon on a Rainbow Shawl by Errol John (born in Trinidad and Tobago; 1924-88) opened on 15 January 1962 at the East 11th Street Theatre in the East Village; James Earl won an Obie for his performance. Gene Wesson’s (1921-75) Infidel Caesar closed at the Music Box Theatre after one preview on 28 May 1962; it never officially opened. In 1967 Jones père et fils performed together in Of Mice and Men, adapted from his own novel by John Steinbeck (1902-68), at Purdue University's Experimental Theatre in West Lafayette, Indiana. James Earl later played Lennie in a production of Of Mice and Men (18 December 1974-9 February 1975) at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre (now the Lena Horne).]

Looking back over the years, James Earl Jones wondered, “What's the legend?” (thinking about the story of Telemachus's search for his father [Odysseus] in “The Odyssey.”) “It's probably a basic human need . . . to follow in the footsteps especially when one doesn't have a clear identity of one's own.

[C. Gerald Fraser (1925-2015) was a reporter for the New York Times for 24 years, one of only two black reporters on the staff at that time he was hired.  He left the Times in 1991 and joined Earth Times.  At the start of his journalistic career, Fraser reported for the New York Amsterdam News from 1952 until 1956, then edited a hotel workers union newspaper and covered the United Nations for West Indian periodicals before being hired by the New York Daily News.]

In Memoriam: James Earl Jones (1931-2024), Part 2

 

[This is the second installment in my short series in tribute to James Earl Jones, the renowned actor who died at 93 on Monday, 9 September.  As I explained in my introduction to the first part, posted on Sunday, 22 September, I saw Jones on stage twice, first in 1967 at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., in the world première of The Great White Hope, and then in 1987 in Fences on Broadway. 

[By the time I saw him in Fences, I was already prepared for what I saw, but in 1967, when I was 21, I was stunned.  I couldn’t quite believe an actor could embody the kind of work I was seeing.  It was an other-worldly experience, and I never forgot the feeling I had watching Jones on that stage.  I saw quite a few magnificent performances both before and after GWH—and I was an amateur actor, at that time doing college shows—but Jones’s Jack Jefferson always eclipsed them all for me.

[It’s for that reason that I decided to run this two-part memorial post to Jones.  He was one of a kind in a profession I love.]

“FOR JAMES EARL JONES, THE STAGE WAS HOME”
by Elisabeth Vincentelli

[Elisabeth Vincentelli’s review of some of James Earl Jones’s stage roles ran in the print edition of the New York Times on 12 September 2024 (section C, page 3), the day after his obituary was published (see Part 1 of this post, 22 September 2024).  (With the actor’s memorial in the first part of this post is also an article examining some of Jones’s film work.)

[As I explained in my foreword to Part 1, my introduction to the acting of James Earl Jones was from the stage—in the role that started him on his road to recognition and stardom, Jack Jefferson in The Great White Hope in 1967/68.  In that foreword, I wrote about some of my theater experiences in my early years as a theatergoer, both in Washington, D.C., my hometown, and New York City. 

[(Much of this is laid out in more detail in “A Broadway Baby,” published on Rick On Theater on 22 September 2010.  I also put up on the blog a survey of theater offerings from the time when the Nation’s Capital was just emerging as a theater town in its own right, “‘Stages in DC’ (Summer 1985),” 25 December 2011.)

[Of the five plays that Vincentelli revisits below, I’ve only seen two, GWH and August Wilson’s Fences.  As I stated in the earlier post, both performances were electrifying.  In Jones’s Jack Jefferson, I saw an astonishing actor, only 36 or 37 when I first saw him, emerging into the limelight that would envelop him ever after.  His Troy Maxson was the work of an actor of established strength and truthfulness showing us how it’s done.  In the decades since then, I’ve never forgotten those experiences.  They’re why people like me go to the theater!]

With roles in classics, major new works and the experimental.

The world will remember James Earl Jones, who died Monday [9 September] at the age of 93, for his contributions to film, some of which are secure in the pop-culture canon.

New York, however, will remember Jones for his contributions to theater, for which he received three Tony Awards (including one for lifetime achievement in 2017) and, in 2022, a rare distinction: the renaming of a Broadway theater in his honor.

Jones once recalled that when he moved to New York to study acting, in 1957, his father, Robert Earl Jones (himself an actor), took him to live performances. In rapid succession, the young man saw the opera “Tosca,” the ballet “Swan Lake,” the musical “Pal Joey” and the drama “The Crucible.” This wide range may help explain Jones’s own rich, startlingly diverse stage career.

For years, the actor deftly navigated oft-produced classics, head-scratching experimental theater, searching new works by major contemporary playwrights and, later in his career, popular dramas and comedies. Jones made his Broadway debut in the late 1950s but throughout the 1960s and ’70s, he also appeared in smaller venues. In 1961, for example, he was in the Living Theater’s avant-garde, resolutely countercultural production of “The Apple.” In 1965 he won an Obie Award for his performance in Bertolt Brecht’s “Baal” and also appeared in Georg Büchner’s “Danton’s Death” at the Vivian Beaumont Theater. In the 1970s, he was Hickman in “The Iceman Cometh” [1973-74], and in the 1980s he starred in two dramas by the South African playwright Athol Fugard [A Lesson From Aloes, 1980-81; “MASTER HAROLD” . . . and the boys, 1982-83] — all three on Broadway.

Here are five productions that reflect Jones’s astonishing range and his commitment to the theater.

1961
‘The Blacks’

A cast of unknowns that included Jones, Cicely Tyson [1924-2021], Maya Angelou [1928-2014], Roscoe Lee Browne [1922-2007] and Louis Gossett Jr. [1936-2024] appeared in this explosive work by the French writer Jean Genet [(1910-86)]. An experimental take on power and oppression in which some of the Black actors wore white masks, “The Blacks” had its New York premiere in 1961 at St. Mark’s Playhouse in Manhattan’s East Village. In just over a week, Howard Taubman of The New York Times wrote not one but two raves about the production, praising it as “one of the most stimulating evenings Broadway or Off Broadway has to offer” and deeming it an event “on any level that matters.”

[The Blacks: A Clown Show (French: Les Nègres, clownerie; published in 1958, premièred in Paris in 1959) by Jean Genet ran at the St. Mark's Playhouse in Manhattan’s East Village from 4 May 1961 to 27 September 1964 (1408 performances). The New York première was produced by Sidney Bernstein, George P. Edgar, and Andre Gregory, and directed by Gene Frankel from Bernard Frechtman’s translation. The set was designed by Kim E. Swados, the costumes and masks by Patricia Zipprodt, and the lighting by Lee Watson. In addition to the actors named above, the cast included Ethel Ayler, Cynthia Belgrave, Godfrey M. Cambridge, Charles Campbell, Charles Gordone, Helen Martin, Jay J. Riley, and Raymond St. Jacques. The production won three 1961 Obie Awards: a Special Citation for Frechtman for his translation, the Best New Play, and a Distinguished Performance for Cambridge as Diouf.]

1964
‘Othello’

A natural Shakespearean, Jones appeared in several productions at Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival [now the Public Theater] and its successor, Shakespeare in the Park. Toward the end of his run there, he gave what The Times described as “one of his finest performances” in “King Lear” in 1973 (which is on YouTube).

But the role that would prove to leave a lasting impression was that of Othello, which he had taken on 10 years earlier. “Mr. Jones commands a full, resonant voice and a supple body, and his jealous rages and frothing frenzy have not only size but also emotional credibility,” The Times wrote in a review in 1964.

When the actor returned to the role of the jealous Moor on Broadway, in 1982, facing Christopher Plummer’s Iago, Frank Rich wrote in these pages that “Mr. Jones’s ease and authority as a military commander seem his by birthright, even as he maintains the uneasy aloofness of an outsider.”

[A correction: Shakespeare in the Park is not the successor to either NYSF or the Public Theater. It’s a free program of the company dating back to the days when it was named the Shakespeare Workshop (1954-1967), presenting its outdoor productions first on a mobile stage then, after its opening in 1962, at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park.
 
[After the Shakespeare Workshop was founded by Joseph Papp (1921-91), the impresario decided the troupe needed a permanent home. He arranged to buy the nearly derelict Astor Library building in what is now NoHo and, after extensive renovations, it opened in 1967 (with Hair) and took the name the Public Theater. The company was rechristened the New York Shakespeare Festival.
 
[Papp died of prostate cancer in 1991 and the company was renamed the Joseph Papp New York Shakespeare Festival/The Public Theater in his honor in 1993. (The building itself became the Joseph Papp Public Theater in 1992.)
 
[The company was known by either name, the New York Shakespeare Festival or the Public Theater, interchangeably until sometime in the second decade of the 21st century when it dropped the NYSF.  Today, it’s called either the Public Theater, or just the Public.  (The company’s home is still known as the Joseph Papp Public Theater.)
 
[The 1973 production of William Shakespeare’s King Lear starring James Earl Jones in the title role was presented at the Delacorte from 26 July to 26 August.  Directed by Edwin Sherin (who had also staged Arena Stage’s GWH, below), its cast, in addition to Jones, included René Auberjonois, George Dzundza, Frankie R. Faison, Raul Julia, Gregory Mosher (who would ultimately become artistic director of Chicago’s Goodman Theatre and then New York City’s Lincoln Center Theater), and Paul Sorvino. Santo Loquasto designed the set, Theoni V. Aldredge designed the costumes, and Martin Aronstein designed the lighting.
 
[The NYSF’s mounting of Shakespeare’s Othello opened at the Delacorte on 8 July 1964 and closed on 8 August. It was staged by Gladys Vaughan, with a set design by Ming Cho Lee, costume designs by Theoni V. Aldredge, and lighting designs by Martin Aronstein.  Alongside Jones as the Moor, the cast included Julienne Marie (whom Jones would marry four years later) as Desdemona, Mitchell Ryan as Iago, Sada Thompson as Emilia, Joan DeWeese as Bianca, Herbert Nelson as Brabantio, John Rayner as Cassio, and James Antonio as Roderigo.
 
[Jones’s performance of the Moor in 1955 was for the Ramsdell Theatre, a community theater in Manistee, Michigan. He was a member of the Manistee Summer Theatre Company and this was his initial appearance in the role.
 
[The 1982 Othello on Broadway (see Part 1) had started in Stratford, Connecticut, at the American Shakespeare Theatre in August-September 1981. The Broadway remount won the 1982 Tony for Best Revival and Plummer won the 1982 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play.]
 
1968
‘The Great White Hope’

In 1967, Jones portrayed a heavyweight boxing champion inspired by the real-life Jack Johnson [1878-1946] in “The Great White Hope,” a new play at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C., by Howard Sackler [see Part 1 for the record of GWH, both at Arena and on Broadway]. The role proved to be a turning point in his career: The epic drama transferred to Broadway in 1968, and Jones became the first African-American to win the Tony Award for best actor in a play. He reprised the part in Martin Ritt’s film adaptation in 1970, earning an Academy Award nomination. Tellingly, Jones followed that breakthrough with a daring show on Broadway: Lorraine Hansberry’s [1930-65] anti-colonialist play “Les Blancs” — ironically, an answer of sorts to Genet’s “The Blacks,” in which Jones had so memorably appeared less than a decade earlier.

[The film adaptation of GWH was produced by Lawrence Turman for Twentieth Century Fox and Lawrence Turman Films. After filming in October 1969-February 1970, the movie premièred in New York City on 11 October 1970, it was released nationally in the U.S. on 19 October. Howard Sackler wrote the screen adaptation of his own play, and, working with director Martin Ritt were John DeCuir for the production design and Irene Sharaff for the costume design. Jones and Jane Alexander reprised their roles; the production also starred Chester Morris (Pop Weaver), Hal Holbrook (Al Cameron), Beah Richards (Mama Tiny), and Moses Gunn (Scipio), among other A-list actors. Both Jones and Alexander were 1971 nominees for Oscars for Best Actor and Actress in a Leading Role; Jones was a 1971 nominee for a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama and he won the award for Most Promising Newcomer – Male, while Alexander was nominated as Most Promising Newcomer – Female.

[Les Blancs (French for ‘The whites’) premièred at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre from 15 November-19 December 1970 (30 previews, 40 regular performances). Directed by John Berry, the scenic design was by Peter Larkin, the costume design was by Jane Greenwood, the lighting design was by Neil Peter Jampolis, and the sound design was by Jack Shearing. In addition to Jones, who played Tshembe Matoseh, the cast included Cameron Mitchell as Charlie Morris, Earle Hyman (later famous as Russell Huxtable on The Cosby Show) as Abioseh Matoseh, and Harold Scott as Eric. (Scott, 1935-2006, later became a director of note, staging Phillip Hayes Dean’s Paul Robeson [see below] with Avery Brooks on Broadway in 1988 and again in 1995. He directed Brooks again as Othello opposite Andre Braugher’s Iago in Washington, D.C., in 1990; see “Some Out-Of-Town Plays from the Archive: Othello,” 22 December 2020.) Les Blancs garnered two 1971 Tony nominations: Best Featured Actress in a Play for Lili Darvas as Marie Nielson and Best Costume Design for Jane Greenwood; it also won a 1971 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Performance for Jones. The play was Lorraine Hansberry’s last, completed almost six years after her death by her ex-husband, Robert Nemiroff, from notes and revisions she made on her deathbed. Hansberry had seen The Blacks Off-Broadway and reviewed it in the Village Voice (“Genet, Mailer, & the New Paternalism,” 1 June 1961); she reportedly began writing Les Blancs immediately.]

1987
‘Fences’

Jones’s first Broadway gig was as the understudy to Lloyd Richards [1919-2006] in the short-lived play “The Egghead,” in 1957. Richards then became a respected, successful director, and it’s in that capacity that he worked with Jones again, directing him in such shows as the two-hander “Paul Robeson,” Fugard’s “A Lesson From Aloes” and, most notably, the Broadway premiere of August Wilson’s “Fences,” in 1987. Jones won his second Tony for his performance as the volatile garbage collector Troy Maxson. You might think this triumph would have made the actor even more in demand onstage, but his film career took priority and he did not return to Broadway until 2005 in “On Golden Pond” (for which he was, once again, nominated for a Tony).

[The details of the Broadway première of Fences is in my introduction to Part 1.

[The Egghead by Molly Kazan (née: Molly Day Thatcher, 1906-63; first wife of director Elia Kazan, 1909-2003) ran at the Ethel Barrymore Theatre on Broadway from 9-26 October 1957 (21 performances). It was directed by Canadian-born actor, director, and producer (and husband and often acting partner of esteemed actress Jessica Tandy) Hume Cronyn (1911-2003), with scenic design by Richard Sylbert and costume design by Anna Hill Johnstone. Aside from Richards as Perry Hall, the cast included Karl Malden (1912-2009) as Hank Parson and Phyllis Love (1925-2011) as Sally Parson.

[Paul Robeson, a monodrama by Phillip Hayes Dean (1931-2014), opened on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre on 19 January 1978, after a circuitous tour of the U.S. (under the direction of Charles Nelson Reilly, 1931-2007) and moved to the Booth, where it closed on 30 April after 3 previews and 77 regular performances. Before reaching New York City, Richards took over the direction; the sets were designed by H. R. Poindexter, the costumes by Noel Taylor, and the lighting by Ian Calderon. Jones was nominated for a 1978 Drama Desk Award as Outstanding Actor in a Play. This is the same play which, as I mention above, was revived with Avery Brooks in 1988 and 1995 with Hal Scott at the helm. Its 1977 tour and ’78 Broadway mounting were received with great controversy by prominent African Americans—including Robeson’s son—who disagreed with Dean’s depiction of Robeson (see Bruce Weber, “Phillip Hayes Dean, the Playwright of Divisive ‘Paul Robeson,’ Dies at 83,” New York Times 23 Apr. 2014: B11). It was Dean’s last play (though it was revived again Off-Broadway in 2014, opening a few days before his death).

[A Lesson From Aloes by South African playwright Athol Fugard ran at Broadway’s Playhouse Theatre from 17 November 1980 to 8 February 1981 (14 previews and 96 regular performances) after having its U.S. première at the Yale Repertory Theatre in New Haven, Connecticut.  (Aloes premiered at the Market Theatre in Johannesburg, South Aftica, in 1978.) Fugard directed his own script with scenery designed by Michael H. Yeargan, costumed designed by Susan Hilferty, and lighting designed by William Armstrong. The cast, continuing from Yale Rep, was Jones as Steve Daniels, Maria Tucci as Gladys Bezuidenhout, and Harris Yulin as Piet Bezuidenhout. The production received a single 1981 Tony Award nomination, for Best Play. 

[On Golden Pond by Ernest Thompson, in a Broadway revival of the 1978 play produced by Jeffrey Finn and directed by Leonard Foglia, opened on 7 April 2005 at the Cort Theatre (as of 12 September 2022, renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre), where it ran for 93 performances, closing on 26 June. (The limited run, which was originally scheduled to end on 5 September, was shortened by Jones’s inability to return to the production after contracting pneumonia.) The revival, which premiered at Washington, D.C.’s Kennedy Center (28 September-17 October 2004), followed by an engagement at the DuPont Theatre in Wilmington, Delaware (22-31 October 2004), was directed by Leonard Foglia with a set by Ray Klausen, costumes by Jane Greenwood, lights by Brian Nason, and original music and sound by Dan Moses Schreier. The cast included Jones as Norman Thayer, Jr.; Leslie Uggams as Ethel Thayer; Linda Powell as Chelsea Thayer Wayne; Peter Francis James as Bill Ray; Alexander Mitchell as Billy Ray; and Craig Bockhorn as Charlie Martin. The production was nominated for two 2005 Tonys: Best Revival of a Play and Best Actor in a Play for Jones.]

2012
‘Gore Vidal’s The Best Man’

It’s hard to pick one out of the six Broadway shows that Jones, in what might be deemed his patriarch years, appeared in between 2005 and 2015. All of them were revivals of crowd-pleasing plays and in all of them he gave strong performances. Let’s single out, then, the one that earned Jones his fourth trip to the Tonys: his turn as a former president of the United States in the political satire “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man.” The production received mixed reviews, but The Times [Charles Isherwood, “Mr. Chairman, the Great State of Nostalgia . . .,” 2 Apr. 2012: C1] praised him for digging “into his role with a relish you can surely sense from the back row of the balcony.”

Other roles in that busy decade include the loyal chauffeur of “Driving Miss Daisy” opposite Vanessa Redgrave (2010), and a beloved eccentric grandfather in the George S. Kaufman [1889-1961] and Moss Hart [1904-61] comedy “You Can’t Take It With You” (2014).

In a fortuitous move, the strands of Jones’s theatrical career came together in what turned out to be his final appearance at a New York theater: He appeared in a revival of the two-hander “The Gin Game” with Cicely Tyson — his castmate from “The Blacks,” back in 1961 [see above].

[There is a report on The Best Man by Kirk Woodward on Rick On Theater; see Rick On Theater: 'Best Man', 19 July 2012.

[The 2012 revival of the political drama was produced with the extended title with Vidal’s acquiescence. Michael Riedel of the New York Post reported on a meeting of Jeffrey Richards, wannabee producer of The Best Man, and the would-be director, Michael Wilson, with Vidal (1925-2012) and his partner, Howard Austen, at which permission to produce was granted.

At the time, there was a Taye Diggs movie called “The Best Man” [1999; directed by Malcolm D. Lee for Universal Pictures]. Richards asked if he could change the title to “Gore Vidal’s The Best Man” to avoid confusion.

“I thought you’d never ask,” Vidal said (“To the Gore of the matter,” 3 Aug. 2012, To the Gore of the matter (nypost.com)).

[The revival opened on 1 April 2012 (four months before the playwright’s death on 31 July) at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre and closed on 9 September after 31 previews and 185 regular performances. Wilson directed with scenery designed by Derek McLane, costumes designed by Ann Roth, lighting designed by Kenneth Posner, sound designed by John Gromada, and projections designed by Peter Nigrini. The cast included Jones as Former President Arthur "Artie" Hockstader; Angela Lansbury as Mrs. Sue-Ellen Gamadge, Chairman of the Women's Division; John Larroquette as Secretary William Russell; and Eric McCormack as Senator Joseph Cantwell, among not a few A-list names. The production was nominated for two 2012 Tonys: Best Revival of a Play and Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play for Jones; it was nominated for three 2012 Drama Desk Awards: Outstanding Revival of a Play, Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for Lansbury, and Outstanding Sound Design in a Play for Gromada, winning the last one.

[The 2010 revival of Driving Miss Daisy by Alfred Uhry played at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway from 25 October 2010 to 9 April 2011 (20 previews and 180 regular performances). The director was David Esbjornson, the scenic designer was John Lee Beatty, the costume designer was Jane Greenwood, the lighting designer was Peter Kaczorowski, the sound designer was Christopher Cronin, and the projection designer was Wendall K. Harrington. Jones played Hoke Colburn, Vanessa Redgrave played Daisy Werthan, and Boyd Gaines played Boolie Werthan. The production got only one 2011 nomination, the Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play for Redgrave.

[The revival in 2014 of You Can’t Take It With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart was at the Longacre Theatre from 28 September 2014 to 22 February 2015, staged by Scott Ellis. The scenery was designed by David Rockwell, the costumes by Jane Greenwood, the lighting by Donald Holder, and the sound by Jon Weston. The cast included Jones as Grandpa Vanderhof, Kristine Nielsen as Penny, Mark Linn-Baker as Paul Sycamore, Patrick Kerr as Mr. DePinna, Annaleigh Ashford as Essie, and Will Brill as Ed. Ashford won both the 2015 Tony for Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play and the 2015 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play. The production was nominated for four other Tony Awards: Best Revival of a Play, Best Direction of a Play (Ellis), Best Scenic Design of a Play (Rockwell), and Best Costume Design of a Play (Greenwood); Julie Halston was also nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Play for her portrayal of Gay Wellington.

[D. L. Coburn’s 1976 tragicomedy The Gin Game was revived for a limited run at the John Golden Theatre from 14 October 2015 to 10 January 2016. The two-hander was staged by Leonard Foglia (who had previously directed Jones in On Golden Pond; see above), and Riccardo Hernández designed the set and costumes, Jules Fisher and Peggy Eisenhauer designed the lights, and David Van Tieghem designed the sound. On stage were Jones as Weller Martin and Cicely Tyson as Fonsia Dorsey.

[Aside from the ones named here, the sixth late Broadway outing to which Vincentelli refers was Tennessee Williams’s [1911-83] Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, which had a limited engagement from 6 March to 22 June 2008 (27 previews and 125 regular performances) at the Broadhurst Theatre. Directed by Debbie Allen, the scenic design was by Ray Klausen, the costume design by Jane Greenwood, the lighting design by William H. Grant III, and the sound design by John Shivers. Jones played Big Daddy, with Phylicia Rashad as Big Mama, Terrence Howard as Brick, and Anika Noni Rose as Maggie. No awards were made for the Broadway revival of Cat, but Jones traveled to London with the production in 2009 and the show won the 2010 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Revival of a Play.]

[Elisabeth Vincentelli is a New York-based arts and culture journalist and a regular contributor to the New York Times’ Arts section.  She served as the chief drama reviewer for the New York Post from 2009 until 2016, succeeding Clive Barnes.]

*  *  *  *
“JAMES EARL JONES, DISTINGUISHED ACTOR
AND VOICE OF DARTH VADER, DIES AT 93”
by Adam B. Vary and Carmel Dagan 

[I’m posting a second obituary of James Earl Jones here because I thought it was worth seeing what an entertainment-industry periodical had to say of the actor.  This notice was published on Variety’s website on 9 September 2024 (James Earl Jones Dead: Darth Vader Voice, Lion King Star Was 93 (variety.com)).

[The Broadway League, the committee of theater owners, announced that it would dim the lights of Broadway marquees to honor the legacy of James Earl Jones on Thursday, 26 September, at 6:45 p.m.  The lights of Broadway’s 41 theaters will darken for one minute.  (Dimming the lights of Broadway theater marquees to honor people who have made significant contributions to the theater world is a tradition that began in the 1950s. The lights are dimmed for one minute at curtain time on a show night; most shows on the 26th will start at 7 p.m.)]

James Earl Jones, the prolific film, TV and theater actor whose resonant, unmistakable baritone was most widely known as the voice of “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader, died Monday morning at his home in Dutchess County, N.Y., his rep confirmed to Variety. He was 93.

After overcoming a profound stutter as a child, Jones established himself as one of the pioneering Black actors of his generation, amassing a bountiful and versatile career spanning over 60 years, from his debut on Broadway in 1958 at the Cort Theatre — renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in 2022 — to his most recent performance in 2021’s “Coming 2 America.” For that film, Jones reprised his role as King Jaffe Joffer from the 1988 Eddie Murphy comedy “Coming to America” — one of several roles, along with Darth Vader, that Jones revisited, including the voice of King Mufasa in Disney’s animated feature “The Lion King” in 1994, the 1998 direct-to-video sequel and the 2019 remake, and CIA deputy director Vice Admiral James Greer in three Jack Ryan movies [based on Tom Clancy novels], 1990’s “The Hunt for Red October,” 1992’s “Patriot Games” and 1994’s “Clear and Present Danger.”

[The 1958 show Vary and Dagan refer to as Jones’s Broadway début at what was then the Cort Theatre was Sunrise at Campobello by Dore Schary (1905-80). In truth, the actor’s first job on Broadway was in Molly Kazan’s The Egghead in 1957 at the Barrymore (see above). He was the understudy for Lloyd Richards.]

Among his more than 80 film credits, Jones’ other notable movies include as a B-52 bombardier in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Cold War satire “Dr. Strangelove” (his feature film debut), as the first Black president of the United States in 1972’s “The Man,” as the fearsome villain in 1982’s “Conan the Barbarian,” as a reclusive author in 1989’s “Field of Dreams,” as a blind former baseball star in 1993’s “The Sandlot,” and as a minister living in apartheid South Africa in 1995’s “Cry, the Beloved Country.” [Several of the films listed here are discussed briefly in Noel Murray’s article in Part 1 of this Rick On Theater series.]

Jones was nominated for four Tony Awards, and won two, in 1969 for playing boxer Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope” (which he reprised on film in 1970, receiving his only Oscar nomination), and in 1987 for originating the role of Troy Maxson in August Wilson’s Pulitzer Prize-winning drama “Fences.” [Both these plays are covered above in Elisabeth Vincentelli’s article and Noel Murray discusses the film adaptation of GWH in Part 1.] He was nominated for eight primetime Emmy awards, winning twice in 1991, for supporting actor in the miniseries “Heat Wave,” about the 1965 Watts riots, and for lead actor in the drama series “Gabriel’s Fire,” about a wrongfully imprisoned ex-cop who becomes a private detective. It was the first time an actor won two Emmys in the same year.

[Heat Wave was a TV movie (not a miniseries) which aired on TNT (Turner Network Television) on 13 August 1990. Gabriel’s Fire was a TV series that ran for one season from 12 September 1990 to 6 June 1991 (22 episodes) on ABC. Jones won the Primetime Emmys for Heat Wave as Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Miniseries or a Special and for Gabriel’s Fire as Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series. His 1971 Oscar nomination for GWH was as Best Actor in a Leading Role; both his Tonys were for Best Actor in Play. (His two Tony nominations were as Best Actor in a Play in On Golden Pond in 2005 and as Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play in 2012 for Gore Vidal’s The Best Man.)]

Jones earned a Kennedy Center Honor in 2002, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement award in 2009, an honorary Oscar in 2011 and a lifetime achievement Tony Award in 2017. His Grammy award in 1977 for spoken word album makes Jones only one a handful of actors to receive an EGOT.

[EGOT is the acronym for winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. Some in show business and the entertainment press believe that an honorary award isn’t enough for EGOT status. There is a continuing debate over whether honorary or noncompetitive awards count toward an EGOT. Only 21 people have won all four awards competitively; 6 people have won an EGOT with honorary or special awards. (Only one person, playwright and musical-theater songwriter Robert Lopez, 49, has won an EGOT twice.)]

Jones’ looming yet ultimately affable presence and rich speaking voice made him a natural for Shakespeare, and he played some of the great roles, such as Macbeth and Othello, for Joseph Papp’s American Shakespeare Festival. Jones narrated several documentaries, from 1972’s “Malcom X” to the 2007 Disneynature doc “Earth,” and, famously, he intoned the tagline “This is CNN” for the cable news channel.

[Jones played Macbeth (1966) and Othello (1964) for Joseph Papp’s Shakespeare Workshop (1954-67; renamed New York Shakespeare Festival in 1967 when it opened the Public Theater with Hair).  There was an American Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford, Connecticut (1955-82), unconnected with Papp, for which Jones also played Othello (1981; transferred to Broadway, 1982; see above and Part 1), but not Macbeth. He was the “Voice of CNN” starting in 1990, the 10th anniversary of the all-news network, and his rendition of the tagline is still in use—and is likely to be well into the future, according to the network.]

His television credits, which number over 70, including many movies and miniseries such as “Roots” [Roots: The Next Generations, 1979; not the original Roots of 1977] and “The Atlanta Child Murders” [1985], recurring roles on “L.A. Law” [1988, 1989] “Homicide: Life on the Street” [1997] and “Everwood” [2003, 2004], and guest roles on shows like “The Simpsons” [1990, 1994, 1998], “Picket Fences” [1994], “Law & Order” [1993], “Frasier” [1997] and “House” [2009].  

As for his most famous role, Jones was paid $7,000 to lend his voice to Darth Vader in 1977’s “Star Wars: A New Hope” [see Part 1], but he declined screen credit for that film and its sequel, 1980’s “The Empire Strikes Back,” out of deference to the actor who played the role on screen, David Prowse [1935-2020]. By 1983’s “Return of the Jedi,” however, Jones had become fully synonymous with one of the most memorable and terrifying villains in cinema history, and received credit for his work. He returned to Vader’s voice again for 2005’s “Episode III — Revenge of the Sith” and 2016’s “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” but for the 2022 Disney+ series “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” Jones instead authorized Lucasfilm to use archival recordings and AI technology to recreate Vader’s voice.

When asked in 2014 by the New York Times about how he’d kept his career alive for so long, Jones’ response evoked the kind of plainspoken humility that he had so often brought to his performances as well.

“The secret is never forgetting that you’re a journeyman actor and that nothing is your final thing, nothing is your greatest thing, nothing is your worst thing,” Jones said. “I still consider myself a novice” [Dave Itzkoff, “‘I Don't Hear the Voice You Hear,’” New York Times Magazine 19 Jan. 2014: 12].

James Earl Jones was born in 1931 on a farm in in Arkabutla, Miss. His father, Robert Earl Jones, left home soon after to pursue his own acting career (the two more-or-less reconciled when the younger Jones was in his 20s, and they even performed together). When Jones was 5, he moved with his maternal grandparents to Michigan. The shock of the relocation induced a stammer so severe that he often could communicate only in writing. It wasn’t until high school when he started to overcome his stutter, when his English teacher, upon learning that Jones composed poetry, encouraged him to read his writing aloud in class.

As an undergraduate student at the University of Michigan, Jones initially set out to study medicine, but wound up more interested in drama. His first stage role was a small part in the 1957 Off Broadway production “Wedding in Japan.” He took side jobs to supplement occasional theater work in Broadway’s “Sunrise at Campobello” [1958], “The Cool World” [1960] and “The Pretender” [Off-Broadway, 1960] He also appeared in summer stock.

[Jones matriculated at the University of Michigan in 1949, but he joined the army in 1953 before graduating. After a two-year stint in the service, he returned to UM in 1955, finished his degree, and was awarded a BA from Michigan’s Department of Music, Theater, and Drama.

[He worked at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan, a community theater in the town in which he grew up. In 1953, he was a stage carpenter, and between 1955 and 1957, he acted and was a stage manager. In his first acting season at the Ramsdell, he gave his first portrayal of Othello. (Jones had also acted at UM, so Wedding in Japan, a drama of interracial romance by Ted Pollack, was perhaps his first professional stage role.)

[Wedding, a drama of interracial romance by Ted (Theodore) Pollack, opened, in a revised version from productions in 1949 and 1952, on 11 March 1957 at the Greystone Theatre. The production was the inaugural offering of the new space that had been converted from a ballroom in the Greystone Hotel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at West 91st Street and Broadway. (I was unable to determine the closing date, but the reviews were generally dismissive.) Jones had a small role as an American GI in post-World War II Japan, and he understudied Ivan Dixon (1931-2008), one of the show’s leads. The production was directed by Leo Nemetz, who was also a producer, with Stanley Greene.]

In 1960, Jones joined Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival [known then as the Shakespeare Workshop]. The following year he made his first serious impact in a landmark Off Broadway production of Jean Genet’s “The Blacks” [see above] as the protagonist Deodatus. Afterwards, for Papp, he played Oberon in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” [1961; Delacorte Theater] the first of many heralded Shakespearean turns. His masterful 1964 performance as Othello for Papp [see above] was moved Off Broadway, where the production ran for almost a year.

Jones’ first big break into cinema came by way of Papp’s production of “The Merchant of Venice,” in which Jones played the Prince of Morocco to George C. Scott’s Shylock [1962; Delacorte Theater]. When Stanley Kubrick came to see Scott, whom he was considering for one of the leads in “Dr. Strangelove” [1964; see Part 1], the film director was so impressed that he cast Jones in the film, too. In 1966, Jones had the title role in “Macbeth” at the New York Shakespeare Festival, again to great acclaim. He also booked a recurring role on “As the World Turns” in 1966, marking the first time a Black actor had a continuing role on a daytime soap opera

Still, he was almost one of Broadway’s best-kept secrets until 1968 with his performance in Howard Sackler’s “The Great White Hope” [see above] as Jack Johnson, the first Black man to win the world heavyweight boxing championship. The Tony, the acclaim and its timing in the late ’60s propelled Jones into the spotlight at a time when it was difficult for Black actors to secure quality roles. The actor, however, has said that the accolades he received for for [sic] both the play and its film adaptation did not do that much for his career.

It wasn’t until 1977, when Jones’ voice terrified audiences for the first time as Darth Vader, that things truly began to shift for him. That same year, Jones also appeared in ABC’s “Roots” playing the author Alex Haley, whose genealogical novel of the same title inspired the groundbreaking miniseries. He never quite became an outright star in the classic sense of the word, but the back-to-back successes that year did ultimately make Jones a household name, whose presence connoted a stature and gravitas to projects that might otherwise be lacking.

[As I noted earlier, this is an error. Jones wasn’t in the 1977 Roots miniseries; his character, Alex Haley, didn’t appear in that program. Jones portrayed Haley in Roots: The Next Generations, the 1979 sequel.]

Theatre is where Jones most frequently was a box office draw in his own right — and well into his 80s. He returned to Broadway in 2005 for a production of “On Golden Pond” opposite Leslie Uggams, drawing another Tony nomination. In 2008, he played Big Daddy in a production of Tennessee Williams’ “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof” that featured an all-Black cast including Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose and Phylicia Rashad. [These plays are covered above, in Elisabeth Vincentelli’s article, as is the show in the paragraph below.]

Two years later, he returned to Broadway in a revival of “Driving Miss Daisy” opposite Vanessa Redgrave; the production’s move to London in 2011 meant he had to miss the Honorary Oscars ceremony in Los Angeles. Instead, Sir Ben Kingsley surprised Jones with his statuette in person after he’d concluded a matinee performance of the show.

Jones was first married to actress-singer Julienne Marie. His second wife of 34 years, actress Cecilia Hart, died in 2016. He is survived by his son, Flynn Earl Jones. [Jones met both his wives when they played Desdemona to his Othello, one in 1964 and the other in 1981.]

[Adam B. Vary is a senior entertainment writer covering the business of genre storytelling and fandom across movies, television, and streaming platforms.  He joined Variety in 2019, after seven years at BuzzFeed News and six years at Entertainment Weekly.

[Carmel Dagan, a news editor at Variety, went to Harvard and worked for the entertainment industry bible Variety for 16 years, and during the last five he wrote more than 300 advanced obituaries, a number of which were published on Variety.com. Dagan also writes current obituaries.]

*  *  *  *
“JONES SET AN EXAMPLE FOR ACTORS”
by Jonathan Abrams 

[Two days after James Earl Jones’s obituary appeared in the New York Times, Jonathan Abrams published a column reporting on how Jones’s art and work had left an impression on some of his professional colleagues.  The article, which ran in the print edition on 13 September 2024, section C, page 3, focuses on Wendell Pierce, who was most recently seen on Broadway in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman at the Hudson Theatre (9 October 2022-15 January 2023), and Courtney B. Vance, who played Troy Maxson’s son Corey in Fences opposite Jones in 1987-88.]

Courtney B. Vance and Wendell Pierce discuss one of their heroes.

James Earl Jones had already made a lifetime impression on Wendell Pierce by the time Pierce patiently waited in a receiving line to meet Jones after his opening night performance of August Wilson’s [1945-2005] “Fences” nearly 40 years ago [26 March 1987].

Years earlier, Jones had mesmerized Pierce in the 1970 film “The Great White Hope,” embodying integrity, creativity and dignity in the role of the boxer Jack Jefferson. The performance inspired a teenage Pierce [b. 1963] as he began his studies at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. That, he decided, was the type of actor he yearned to be.

Pierce told Jones of his impact. “Are you an actor?” Pierce recalled Jones asking in his barreling baritone of a voice. Delighted to learn that he was, Jones discussed how he enjoyed the night, but was glad it was over. There was shared energy between the actors and audience except the hole where the critics sat stoic and unmoved. They wouldn’t be there after opening night.

“Now that it’s over, there won’t be that hole there,” Jones said. “People can just respond to the play. That’s the great thing about doing theater. It’s that energy between the audience and the performance. Don’t you find that?”

It’s a moment Pierce cherishes after carving his own impactful career by starring in television shows like “The Wire” [2002-2008, HBO] and “Treme” [2010-2013, HBO] and on Broadway in “Death of a Salesman.”

“I knew I was part of a collective whole of the people who had seen it that would have this unique, seminal experience that would be something that you had to be there to see,” Pierce said. “And I feel privileged that I was a part of that very few, especially in theater performances with Mr. Jones, that got to see it.”

Art reflects society’s values, hopes and dreams, he said. An actor’s mission is to project those onto a communal setting. No one did it better than Jones, who died at 93 on Monday [9 September 2024].

“The more specific you are and the more authentic and truthful you are, like he was, the more universal it becomes,” Pierce said. “That’s why people identify with his famous performances, because we all were touched by it because he was so truthful, so authentic that it spoke to all of us.”

Jones’s voice is instantly recognizable for his work in the original “Star Wars” trilogy, “The Lion King” and “The Simpsons.” His face is known for classics like “Coming to America,” “The Sandlot” and “Field of Dreams.” However, it may have been Broadway where Jones’s presence resonated so personally and profoundly not just with the audience, but with a young crop of Black actors who cherished seeing male actors of color in leading roles.

“He’s my hero,” Denzel Washington [b. 1954] told Variety. “My college theater career started because of ‘The Emperor Jones’ and ‘Othello’ with James Earl Jones.”

[It’s unlikely that Washington saw Jones’s 1964 portrayal of Othello at Central Park’s Delacorte Theater, but he might have seen the 1982 Broadway mounting or even the 1981 version in Connecticut. Eugene O’Neill’s The Emperor Jones is another matter, however. There is a 1971 recording from Caedmon of Jones in a reading of the play, but I can’t find a record that it was derived from a staged version. Jones did perform the title role on the stage, but it was in 1964 (when Washington would only have been 9), and it was at the Boston Arts Festival. I haven’t been able to find a record of any other performance of James Earl Jones playing Brutus Jones that Washington’s likely to have seen.]

“I wasn’t going to be as big as him,” Washington added. “I wanted to sound like him. He was everything to me as a budding actor. He was who I wanted to be.”

Courtney B. Vance [b. 1960] described acting alongside Jones in “Fences” as “the seminal event of my life.” High expectations existed around a play that showcased a Black playwright (Wilson), Black director (Lloyd Richards) and Black lead actor (Jones). Vance often sensed a power struggle, but for the most part, he was just trying to find his footing.

In the play, Vance played Cory, the son of the protagonist, Jones’s Troy Maxson. Vance was 25 [actually, 27] years old at the time, planting the seeds for his own long career, which includes Emmy and Tony wins. Everyone else in the cast knew one another. Vance originally felt isolated.

“They all knew him,” Vance said. “He was Jimmy and James Earl Jones. I didn’t know what to call him, and of course, in the play, he demanded that his son — ‘You put a sir on that when you speak to me. Yes sir.’ So, he was sir to me and that’s what I called him.”

Vance was referencing a memorable scene in which his character asked his father if he liked him. Jones, as Maxson, forcefully responded that he provided for him and that should suffice.

“It’s so timeless,” Vance said. “It’s the struggle between fathers and sons.”

Jones and Vance giggled through rehearsing the scene for the first couple of weeks. “It was too deep for us, I guess,” Vance said. Finally, Richards requested they go deeper.

“Jimmy had a sinus thing, so the snot would just roll on out of his nose and he would just let it hang there with the snot just bouncing in the air and you didn’t know whether to look at him or the snot or to the ground,” Vance said. “It was very otherworldly.”

Jones made his Broadway debut in the 1950s, receiving three Tony Awards (one for lifetime achievement) over the decades while playing a range of rich roles like Maxson, or Jefferson in the 1967 play “The Great White Hope,” written by Howard Sackler, that was adapted into the movie Pierce loved.

In the years before Pierce met Jones at “Fences,” he had arrived in New York to study at Juilliard, “lost, uncomfortable, a little nervous about stepping into this new chapter of my life with studying theater,” he said.

In 1982, he watched Jones perform in “Othello” at the Winter Garden Theater.

“It gave me focus and it made me come to understand that I was in the right place at the right time and doing the work that I needed to do, because I saw what I possibly could become embodied in this man playing the Moor,” Pierce said. “That’s how you know that something is authentic, the lasting impact that it has on the people that receive it.”

Vance said he had made plans to visit Jones later this month. “The world shifted on me,” Vance said. “I’ll have to see him in my dreams.”

[Jonathan Abrams writes about the intersections of sports and culture and the changing cultural scenes in the South.

[American Theatre, the quarterly magazine of the Theatre Communications Group, has just released an online tribute to James Earl Jones by his co-star in the Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Phylicia Rashad.  I have decided to add a third part to the memorial series to repost that essay, which I will accompany by three additional articles I think are interesting.  Part 3 will be posted on Saturday, 28 September 2024.]