I first saw James Earl Jones perform a half century ago. I was a freshman at Long Island University-Brooklyn, and I thought it was a good idea to watch an evening campus theatrical performance of Shakespeare’s “Othello” starring Jones. 

That was one of the best arts-related decisions I ever made. 

Maybe I remembered Jones because the previous year or so I watched him play Black boxing champion Jack Johnson in “The Great White Hope.” I watched that screening with my teenage pals in an all-purpose room at the Bedford Boys Club. 

Jones the actor had compelling stage presence. He was the masculine everyman with that distinctive baritone. But as intensely entertaining as he was, I didn’t anticipate Jones becoming a major star. 

How glad I am that I was grossly mistaken.

Accolades are pouring in because James Earl Jones, 93, died Monday. He was widely known as the authoritative voice introducing CNN, and the foreboding voice of galactic “Star Wars” villain Darth Vader of “No (Luke), I am your father” infamy, and voice of the dignified King Mufasa of Disney’s “The Lion King.” 

Indeed, Jones had range, but what range; a six-plus-decade career of 150 combined movie and TV roles, and that does not include his extensive theater career. Jones in a rare EGOT, winner of Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony awards, plus Golden Globe and Kennedy Center recognition.

So many unforgettable roles, but I have personal top three moments that, to paraphrase Charles Mingus, hits me in my soul:

• “Gabriel’s Fire,” [1990-1991], the ABC TV drama starred Jones as Gabriel Bird, a cop convicted for killing his partner, however, after a lengthy prison stay, an attorney facilitates his freedom, then hires the ex-police officer as an investigator. Jones’ Bird character depicted freedom when he awkwardly and joyfully ordered a hot dog at a pushcart on a brutally cold winter’s day. There was fire too in Bird’s relations with love interest Empress Josephine, played by the late Madge Sinclair. “Gabriel’s Fire” won four Emmys out of six nominations, yet the drama was canceled after one season.

• “Claudine,” [1974] starred Jones as Roop, a garbage man who falls in love with Claudine, played by Diahann Carroll, a mom with six children who was barely getting by on public assistance. The movie was a beautiful blend of romance, welfare and working-class angst, and the complex dynamics of an evolving, blended family. 

• In “Field of Dreams,” [1989] Jones, as reclusive author Terrence Mann, utters the majestic line “If you build it, he will come,” “he” being farmer Ray Kinsella’s father.

No role was too champagne high or six-pack low for James Earl Jones. 

Well into his eighties, Jones told an interviewer that he was a working actor, always seeking to learn and grow. 

I will speculate that Jones’ motivation was lifelong appreciation for how far he had come. He stuttered as a child and did not speak for years out of embarrassment. 

“A world ended for me, the safe world of childhood,” he explained in his autobiography. “The move from Mississippi to Michigan was supposed to be a glorious event. For me it was a heartbreak, and not long after, I began to stutter.”

But a schoolteacher took an interest in young James and encouraged him to read poetry to classmates. The former stutterer gained confidence, then command of the podium or stage. “I could not get enough of speaking, debating, orating – acting,” wrote Jones in his autobiography.

An enduring tribute to James Earl Jones was the 2022 renaming of the Cort Theatre on New York’s Broadway in honor of the magnificent actor of live stage, movie screen, and TV screen.

Dawkins is author of “Sam Lacy and Wendell Smith: The Dynamic Duo That Desegregated American Sports”