The sad news broke on Monday that beloved entertainer James Earl Jones died at his home, aged 93.
Having won more accolades than most performers could dream of, the US Army veteran and Shakespearean actor profoundly influenced several generations and built a legacy that will continue for generations to come.
Widely regarded as among the world’s great stage and screen actors Jones is one of the few entertainers to have won the EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony), though his Academy Award was Honorary. Jones has received two Primetime Emmy Awards, a Daytime Emmy, a spoken-word Grammy Award in 1977 and three Tony Awards.
The actor amassed nearly 200 screen credits during his brilliant 60-year career, starting some early-’60s TV guest roles and Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 classic Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). He probably is best known for his voice role as the dastardly Darth Vader in George Lucas’ original Star Wars trilogy: Star Wars (1977) The Empire Strikes Back, 1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).
Yet for all his worldly renown, the great actor harbored a lesser-known side of himself.
So we see that history’s greatest playwright influenced one of America’s great actors, both of whom were coreligionists whose Catholicism was unknown to most people.
A lot of people these days wonder why Hollywood seems unable to produce works with the cultural penetration and staying power of films like Star Wars. Or like Conan the Barbarian. Or like the original The Lion King.
What those people forget–or prefer not to acknowledge–is that the Christian faith is the soul of Western culture.
Modernism had already claimed victory over most Western institutions by the time Jones played his breakout roles. But enough vestiges of the Christian worldview remained for the echoes of that old order that came through those performances to strike a chord in the zeitgeist.
The New Age-alloyed myth of Star Wars is often cited for its vestigial Christian undertones. But among Jones’ body of work it is Conan, complete with its serpent imagery and crucifixion scene, that preserves a purer, less convoluted picture of classic good vs evil conflict.
Still, in these degraded days of entertainment-like product, it’s beneficial to take a moment for quiet reflection on what craftsmen like James Earl Jones gave us, how we lost it, and whether the tradeoff was worthwhile.
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As goes the West, so goes James Earl Jones, eternal memory!
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