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JamesEarlJones 9891
Cquote1
"This is C.N.N."
—James Earl Jones, CNN Station Identification
Cquote2


U.S. Army Ranger. Played blue-eyed Thulsa Doom. The voice of God, Darth Vader, Mufasa, and (in a single Treehouse of Horror episode of The Simpsons) Maggie Simpson.

(Is not actually God, of course. God is Morgan Freeman)

For decades (1931-2024), James Earl Jones was proof that all you really needed to be a Badass was the perfect voice. A noted actor of stage and screen, James Earl Jones was famous for his deep voice that could either be sinister (e.g. Darth Vader) or paternal (Mufasa) but was authoritative and commanding regardless — even more so when you consider he had to overcome a severe stutter in his youth. His voice was also remarkable for being naturally of bass register, which is indeed very rare. He also got a fair amount more respect on the stage, where he was a fixture on the African-American art-theater circuit (he was the lead at the opening performance in several of August Wilson's Pittsburgh Cycle, most famously Fences.)

Among the accolades he won was the SAG lifetime achievement award and completed an EGOT in 2011. In 2019, he was honored as a Disney Legend and Broadway's Cort Theatre was renamed after him in 2022.

There's only one thing that doesn't sound right in his voice. However, the edited dub is considered by some to be pretty lulzy.

Here is a clear demonstration of just how perfect his voice is for the role (or rather, a demonstration of how lame things would have been without him): A pre-voiceover clip showing Darth Vader voiced by his on-screen character's actor, David Prowse, who had the right stature for the character (as James himself was too short).