| Activity | Jones had his acting career beginnings at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. In 1953 he was a stage carpenter. During the 1955 – 1957 seasons he was an actor and stage manager. He performed his first portrayal of Shakespeare’s Othello in this theater in 1955.
His first film role was as a young and trim Lt. Lothar Zogg, the B-52 bombardier, in Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb in 1964 which was more famous for the work of Peter Sellers and Slim Pickens. His first big role came with his portrayal of boxer Jack Jefferson in the film version of the Broadway play, The Great White Hope which was based on the life of boxer Jack Johnson. For his role, Jones was nominated Best Actor by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he is the second African-American male performer (following Sidney Poitier) to receive a nomination.
In 1969, Jones participated in making test films for a proposed children's television series called Sesame Street; these shorts, combined with animated segments, were shown to groups of children to gauge the effectiveness of the then-groundbreaking Sesame Street format. As cited by production notes included in the DVD release Sesame Street: Old School 1969-1974, the short that had the greatest impact with test audiences was one showing bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten. This and other segments featuring Jones were eventually aired as part of the Sesame Street series itself when it debuted later in 1969 and Jones is often cited as the first celebrity guest on that series, although a segment with Carol Burnett was the first to actually be broadcast.
He has appeared in many roles since, but is best known as the sinister voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films. Darth Vader was portrayed in costume by David Prowse in the original films, with Jones dubbing Vader's dialogue in postproduction.
His other voice roles include Mufasa in the 1994 film Disney animated feature The Lion King, and its sequel The Lion King II: Simba's Pride, and the Emperor of the Night in Pinocchio and the Emperor of the Night. He also has done the CNN tagline, "This is CNN"; the opening for NBC's coverage of the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics; "the Big PI in the Sky" (God) in the computer game Under a Killing Moon; a Claymation film about The Creation; and several guest spots on The Simpsons. He is also credited in the movie Robots with the voice of Darth Vader from a voice module.
He also played the character Terence Mann in the baseball film Field of Dreams; the feared neighbor and owner of the dog Hercules in The Sandlot; King Jaffe Joffer in Coming to America, Reverend Stephen Kumalo in Cry, The Beloved Country; Admiral James Greer in The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger; the villain Thulsa Doom in Conan the Barbarian; and author Alex Haley in the television mini-series Roots: The Next Generations.
Jones is an accomplished stage actor as well; he has won Tony awards in 1969 for The Great White Hope and in 1987 for Fences, and his performance of Othello is considered[citation needed] one of the greatest in history. Other Shakespearean roles include King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measure, and Claudius in Hamlet. He received Kennedy Center Honors in 2002.
In February 2008, he began starring on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams's Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and mounted at the Broadhurst Theatre. He appears alongside stage veterans Phylicia Rashad (Big Mama) and Anika Noni Rose (Maggie), as well as film actor Terrence Howard making his Broadway debut as Brick.
Active: 1950s-present. |