Academy Award-winning entertainer James Earl Jones, known for voicing the iconic role of Darth Vader in the Star Wars franchise, has died.
Jones' voice achieved not just for voicing the role of Darth Vader, but also for the 1994 film Lion Kind. He will also be remembered for his work with CNN. Jones was 93.
Jones married his first wife, actor and singer Julienne Marie, in 1968. As per an interview Jones on Playbill, he met Marie while performing Othello in 1964. They divorced four years later in 1972 and had no children. Marie then married businessperson John Scanlon, and remained married till 2001.
Jones, meanwhile, married his second wife, actor Cecilia Hart, in 1982, the same year he got divorced. They were married till Hart's death on October 16, 2016, from ovarian cancer. He and Hart have a son, actor Flynn Earl Jones.
Jones' agent, Barry McPherson, confirmed that the actor died at his home in Hudson Valley, New York on Monday. The cause of his death was not immediately clear, as per reports.
Jones revealed in 2016 that he had been suffering from type 2 diabetes since the mid-1990s. He said in a January 2016 interview with Good Housekeeping that his doctor suspected diabetes after noticing that he had fallen asleep while working out at a gym.
"I didn't notice any symptoms," Jones had said in the interview. "I had gone to a diet and exercise program hoping to lose some weight and ended up falling asleep sitting on a bench in the gymnasium.
"My doctor, who happened to be there, said that's not normal. He encouraged me to go get a test, and I did — and there it was: type 2 diabetes. It hit me like a thunderbolt."
Jones, an iconic figure in Hollywood, was one of the first African American actors in a continuing role on a daytime drama and worked deep into his 80s, winning two Emmys, a Golden Globe, two Tony Awards, a Grammy, the National Medal of Arts, the Kennedy Center Honors and was given an honorary Oscar and a special Tony for lifetime achievement. In 2022, a Broadway theater was renamed in his honor.