Let’s face it, 99% of the people alive today who knew anything at all about James Earl Jones knew about him from Star Wars. He was, after all, the voice of Darth Vader, the most commanding villain in all cinema.
My first memory of Jones, however, was from the early 1970s, when I was a little kid. I was watching a made-for-TV movie about the Barney and Betty Hill UFO incident. Jones played Barney, and the scene where he recalls, under hipnosis, his encounter with a UFO struck me, even a kid, as unbelievably powerful and even scary. (If you can find this movie on Youtube, you should check it out.)
It’s important for us all to remember how truly great an actor Jones was. He wasn’t just a voice–he was a master of the entire art. One of my lit. professors in college recalled seeing Jones as Othello on Broadway in a now-legendary production with Christopher Plummer as Iago, and how absolutely mesmerizing Jones was.
In keeping with that memory, I am posting a brief, command performance that Jones did of a scene from Othello about ten years ago.
Godspeed, Mr. Jones….!!!
Ash Clifton, Writer 