James Earl Jones, Iconic Voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars Plus Mufasa in The Lion King, Dies at 93

James Earl Jones, the iconic voice behind Star Wars‘ Darth Vader and The Lion King‘s Mufasa, has died. He was 93.

The star died on the morning of Monday, Sept. 9, at his home in Dutchess County, New York, his agent confirms to PEOPLE.

He is survived by his is son Flynn Earl Jones. His wife Cecilia Hart died in October 2016.

Some of the actor’s other memorable film roles came in Coming to America (1988), Field of Dreams (1989), The Sandlot (1993) and The Hunt for Red October (1990).

Quiet Beginnings

Born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, and later raised by his grandparents in Michigan, James spent eight years of his childhood in silence because of a stutter. “I stuttered badly, and so I retreated and lived in a world of silence rather than speak,” the actor told a congressional panel in 2002. However, he eventually overcame it with the help of a teacher who, when Jones started writing poetry, encouraged him to read it aloud.

In his memoir Voices and Silences, Jones explained, “The written word is safe for the stutterer. The script is a sanctuary.”

Acting wasn’t always part of the plan for him. While at the University of Michigan, he studied pre-med and joined the Army, and once he finally landed on acting, he had to work as a janitor to make ends meet.

Although he was reluctant to call it that, his big break was in the play The Great White Hope, which premiered in 1967, as Jack Jefferson, a role that earned him the Tony Award for best actor in 1969. When the play was adapted into a movie in 1970, Jones played the lead and his performance earned him a Golden Globe win and an Academy Award nomination. He was the second Black actor to receive an Oscar nomination after Sidney Poitier.

Throughout his career, the classically trained actor brought his deep and authoritative voice to challenging roles like the tragic heroes of Shakespeare’s Othello and King Lear. In his early years onstage, it was unusual for a Black actor to take the lead in Shakespeare plays.

“If it bothers someone that I’m Black and playing Lear, it isn’t because there’s something wrong with me. It’s their problem,” he told PEOPLE in 1974.

The Voice that Launched a Fan Empire

While British actor David Prowse was the man physically behind Darth Vader’s mask in the Star Wars films, it was Jones who brought menace to the character by voicing him in the original trilogy.

“I’m simply special effects,” Jones once told AFI, explaining that George Lucas wanted a “darker” voice in 1977’s Star Wars movie. “So, he hires a guy born in Mississippi, raised in Michigan, who stutters.”

“From all these so-called handicaps, I lucked out to get a job that paid me $7,000, and I thought that was good money,” he said. “It was great fun to be a part of that.”

After Star Wars, Jones married his second wife, Hart, in 1982, and the two welcomed their only child, Flynn, that same year. In 1987, he won his second Tony Award in 1987 for playing Troy Maxson, a retired baseball player having communication problems with his son, in August Wilson’s Fences.

Moving from film to TV and back to the stage, Jones has always referred to himself as a “journeyman actor.” In 1990, he won two Emmy Awards in the same year: one for lead actor in Gabriel’s Fire and another for outstanding supporting role in the miniseries Heat Wave.

He also racked up several other Emmy nominations for guest-starring roles in series including Everwood, Under One Roof, Picket Fences and Frasier.

Jones discovered he had type 2 diabetes in the 1990s, which he learned “quite by accident,” he said during an appearance on the Rachael Ray Show in 2016.

“Once I knew I had type 2 diabetes it was all about getting help from my family and my doctors,” he said. He launched a campaign “I Can Imagine,” which helps people take control of their diabetes.

In recent years, the actor starred in productions of On Golden Pond, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Much Ado About Nothing, which costarred Vanessa Redgrave. In 2012, Jones earned his fourth Tony nomination for The Best Man.

He also returned to some of the voice roles that made him such an icon. He lent his voice to the role of Darth Vader in for the animated series Star Wars: Rebels and for 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

In 2019, the actor reprised his role of Mufasa for the live-action film The Lion King, with Beyoncé and Donald Glover as fellow voice actors.

There was a reason Jones’ career spanned more than 50 years: He loves it. “I’d like to play anything that gives me a chance to learn about people who are truly different from me,” he once told PEOPLE. “I want to say as much as possible about how I feel about myself — not my Black self or my American self, but my real self.”