The Legacy of James Earl Jones

The voice of an icon

As you know, I don’t like obituary cartoons, which is the term we in the business use for cartoons memorializing someone who died. I especially hate it when they’re also Pearly Gates cartoons. I’m not cracking on cartoonists who draw those because I draw them too. However, I think an obit cartoon can be good if it touches readers which I think I did with Betty White.

I do like obit cartoons that make a stronger point than “sad face,” or put a spin or a twist on it. Those are kinda rare which can make them especially good.

If anyone deserves an obit cartoon from me, a Star Wars fanboy, it’s Mr. James Earl Jones. No relation.

I’m not going to write up a litany of who James Earl Jones was or his many accomplishments because you don’t need that from me and you’re already aware of them, and if you don’t, scroll through his Wikipedia page. Even if the majority of this planet’s population couldn’t recognize his face, nearly everyone has heard James Earl Jones’ voice. “This is CNN.” So, I’m going to write about what he meant to me, and it starts with Star Wars.

I’m a Star Wars kid. I totally geeked out when Mark Hamill (Mr. Luke Skywalker) started liking my posts and followed me on XTwitter. Holy shit! I’m friends with Luke Skywalker, and he shares my politics.

My big brother, Jimmy, introduced me to Star Wars when I was a kid back in the 1970s by taking me to the movies while our mom was in prison (that’s another story). That period was a hard time for me (and I’m sure it was for my sister and brother as well), and Star Wars made it less difficult. Yes, I’m a nerd. Shut up. I’ve been hooked on Star Wars ever since. I can even tolerate the prequels.

I wanted to be Han Solo and I kinda still do. I still want a blue lightsaber. I had a crush on Princess Leia. Do you remember the scene in Friends when Rachel dresses in the bikini Princess Leia was forced to wear on Boba Fett’s yacht? yeah, that’s pretty much the fantasy for every Star Wars kid, even the gay ones. If a girl does that for you, then you totally lose the “we were on a break” argument.

I loved just about everything with Star Wars excluding Ewoks and Jar Jar. There is so much that’s iconic about Star Wars, the Force, the Millenium Falcon, lightsabers, Yoda, Yoda’s speaking style, Wookies, Princess Leia’s bikini, Luke kissing his sister, etc, etc…but perhaps the most iconic (we can argue this later but for today, shut up) has to be Darth Vader.

Darth Vader may be the greatest villain of all time. He was the epitome of evil when Star Wars was first released way back in 1977. He was tall, wearing a cape, and though we didn’t know his backstory when the first movie came out, we knew he was some sort of cyborg needing a special suit to help him breathe, which is why he had that scary breathing thing going on, with each breath sounding like it was breaking through a wall…and that deep majestic voice.

That voice was scary while also sarcastic. “I find your lack of faith disturbing.” While we didn’t know much about Vader in 1977, we knew his entire back story and redemption nearly two decades before the prequels started…and we watched them anyway.

By the way, Darth Vader never said, “Luke, I am your father.” By the way, that surprised me just as much as Bruce Willis being dead in The Sixth Sense. Nope, I’d like to say I saw both of them coming. But I did know that Sophia was going to be a Walker in the barn.

When I took my son to see Star Wars for the first time, it was 1997 and the original trilogy was being re-released in the theaters with scenes deleted from the original releases, new effects, a human Boba Fett who looked like the owner of a shady pawn shop, and years later, Hayden Christensen’s head on David Prowse’s body. I introduced my son to Star Wars the way my brother introduced me to it, and my kid became as much of a geek as his father, actually, even more so. He’s in his 30s and he owns a Mandalorian helmet. He knows Legend and Cannon.

When my son was introduced to Star Wars, he heard the voice of James Earl Jones and it was dark and evil. But it wasn’t the first time he heard the voice of James Earl Jones. A couple years before he saw Star Wars for the first time, he had heard James Earl Jones in The Lion King…a lot. And that same voice we found so terrifying was sweet and endearing in The Lion King. We all wanted Simba’s dad to be our dad (except for me. I want Frasier’s dad to be my dad).

We rented a VHS tape of The Lion King and eventually bought it because the kid had it on a loop. The only thing that saved us from watching and hearing The Lion King 17 times a day every day was when Toy Story came out, which we also had to endure 17 times a day every day. Then, Batman Forever came out on VHS, again, 17 times a day every day, and the baby boy was Batman for Halloween three years in a row and I had to check on him after he went to bed every night to make sure he wasn’t sleeping in his cape. He was….every night. But I digress.

James Earl Jones didn’t just do voice work. He did live acting too and the one that probably appealed to me the most was Field of Dreams. Yeah, I’m a cliche and I get a little teary-eyed every time I hear, "Dad? You wanna have a catch?” Of course, that like wasn’t delivered by Jones but by Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella. Liberal politics, baseball, daddy issues, Burt Lancaster, corn, James Earl Jones…what’s not to love about that movie other than it being in Iowa? Ew. Though to his credit, Jones’ character, Terrance Mann, starts off in Boston.

The best quote from that movie may not be “wanna have a catch?” or even “if you build it, they will come,” but the soliloquy delivered by Jones’ Terrance Mann.

"They'll watch the game and it'll be as if they dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick they'll have to brush them away from their faces. People will come Ray. The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good and it could be again."

Or maybe, “It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father.”

RIP, James Earl Jones, and thank you.

Drawn in 30 seconds:

Timelapse with a voiceover:

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