James Earl Jones

Early life and education

James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, on January 17, 1931, to Ruth (; 1911–1986), a teacher and maid, and Robert Earl Jones (1910–2006), a boxer, butler, and chauffeur. His father left the family shortly after James Earl's birth and later became a stage and screen actor in New York and Hollywood. Jones and his father did not get to know each other until the 1950s, when they reconciled. He said in interviews that his parents were both of mixed African-American, Irish, and Native American ancestry.

From the age of five, Jones was raised by his maternal grandparents, John Henry and Maggie Connolly, Jones found the transition to living with his grandparents in Michigan traumatic and developed a stutter so severe that he refused to speak. He said, "I was a stutterer. I couldn't talk. So my first year of school was my first mute year, and then those mute years continued until I got to high school." He credited his English teacher, Donald Crouch, who discovered he had a gift for writing poetry, with helping him end his silence. Crouch urged him to challenge his reluctance to speak through reading poetry aloud to the class.

In 1949, Jones graduated from Dickson Rural Agricultural School (now Brethren High School) in Brethren, Michigan, where he served as vice president of his class.

He attended the University of Michigan where he was initially a pre-med major. He joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and excelled. He felt comfortable within the structure of the military environment and enjoyed the camaraderie of his fellow cadets in the Pershing Rifles Drill Team and Scabbard and Blade Honor Society. After his junior year,

Military service

With the Korean War intensifying, Jones expected to receive orders to active duty and be deployed as soon as he received his commission as a second lieutenant. While he waited for his orders, he worked on the stage crew and acted at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. Jones was commissioned in mid-1953, after the Korean War's end, and reported to Fort Benning to attend the Infantry Officers Basic Course. He attended Ranger School and received his Ranger Tab. Jones was assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 38th Regimental Combat Team. He was initially to report to Fort Leonard Wood, but his unit was instead sent to establish a cold-weather training command at the former Camp Hale near Leadville, Colorado. His battalion became a training unit in the rugged terrain of the Rocky Mountains. Jones was promoted to first lieutenant prior to his discharge.

Jones moved to New York City, where he studied at the American Theatre Wing and worked as a janitor to support himself.

Career

1953–1972: Early roles and Shakespeare in the Park

Jones began his acting career at the Ramsdell Theatre in Manistee, Michigan. In 1953, he was a stage carpenter, and between 1955 and 1957, he acted and was a stage manager. In his first acting season at the Ramsdell, he portrayed Othello. His early career also included an appearance in the ABC radio anthology series Theatre-Five. In 1957, he made his Broadway debut as understudy to Lloyd Richards in the short-lived play, The Egghead, by Molly Kazan. The play ran only 21 performances, but three months later, in January 1958, Jones created the featured role of Edward the butler in Dore Schary's Sunrise at Campobello at the Cort Theatre.

During the early to mid 1960s, Jones acted in various works of William Shakespeare, becoming one of the best known Shakespearean actors of the time. He tackled roles such as Othello and King Lear, Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream, Abhorson in Measure for Measure, and Claudius in Hamlet all at Shakespeare in the Park. In 1961, Jones appeared in an Off-Broadway production of The Blacks by Jean Genet, alongside eight subsequently prominent Black actors, including Roscoe Lee Browne, Cicely Tyson, Lou Gossett and others.{{cite journal | access-date = 10 September 2024 | url-access = registration

Jones would later play a surgeon and Haitian rebel leader in The Comedians, with Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, and Alec Guinness. In December 1967, Jones starred with Jane Alexander in Howard Sackler's play, The Great White Hope, at the Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. Jones took the role of the talented but troubled boxer "Jack Jefferson", who is based on the real champion Jack Johnson. The play was a huge success when it moved to Broadway on October 3, 1968 and was well received, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. Jones himself won the 1969 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for his performance.

In 1969, Jones participated in making test films for the children's education series Sesame Street; these shorts, combined with animated segments, were shown to groups of children to gauge the effectiveness of the then-groundbreaking Sesame Street format. As cited by production notes included in the DVD release Sesame Street: Old School 1969–1974, the short that had the greatest impact with test audiences was one showing bald-headed Jones counting slowly to ten. This and other segments featuring Jones were eventually aired as part of the Sesame Street series itself when it debuted later in 1969 and Jones is often cited as the first celebrity guest on that series, although a segment with Carol Burnett was the first actually to be broadcast. He also appeared on the soap opera Guiding Light.

In 1970, Jones reunited with Jane Alexander in the film adaptation of The Great White Hope. This would be Jones's first leading film role. Jones portrayed boxer Jack Johnson, a role he had previously originated on stage. His performance was acclaimed by critics and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. He was the second African-American male performer after Sidney Poitier to be nominated for this award. Variety described his performance declaring, "Jones' recreation of his stage role is an eye-riveting experience. The towering rages and unrestrained joys of which his character was capable are portrayed larger than life." In ** (1972), Jones starred as a senator who unexpectedly becomes the first African-American president of the United States.

1973–1983: ''Star Wars'' and rise to prominence

In 1973, Jones played Hickey on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre in a revival of Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh and starred in the title role of William Shakespeare's King Lear opposite Paul Sorvino, René Auberjonois, and Raul Julia at the New York City Shakespeare Festival in Central Park, which was recorded and broadcast in the PBS Great Performances series the following year. In 1974, Jones played Lennie on Broadway in the 1974 Brooks Atkinson Theatre production of the adaptation of John Steinbeck's novella, Of Mice and Men, with Kevin Conway as George and Pamela Blair as Curley's wife.

In 1974, Jones co-starred with Diahann Carroll in the film Claudine, the story of a woman who raises her six children alone after two failed and two "almost" marriages. The film is a romantic comedy and drama, focusing on systemic racial disparities black families face. It was one of the first major films to tackle themes such as welfare, economic inequality, and the typical marriage of men and women in the African American community during the 1970s. Jones and Carroll received widespread critical acclaim and Golden Globe nominations for their performances. Carroll was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress.

In 1977, Jones played Balthazar in the television series * Jesus of Nazareth*. That same year, he made his debut in his iconic voiceover role as Darth Vader in George Lucas's space opera blockbuster film Star Wars: A New Hope, which he would reprise for the sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Darth Vader was portrayed in costume by David Prowse in the film trilogy, with Jones dubbing Vader's dialogue in post-production because Prowse's strong West Country accent was deemed unsuitable for the role by director George Lucas. At his own request, Jones was uncredited for the release of the first two Star Wars films, As he explained in a 2008 interview:

In 1977, Jones also received a Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album for Great American Documents. In late 1979, Jones appeared on the short-lived CBS police drama Paris. Jones also starred that year in the critically acclaimed TV mini-series sequel Roots: The Next Generations as the older version of author Alex Haley.

1985–1999: Established career

In 1987, Jones starred in August Wilson's play Fences as Troy Maxson, a middle aged working class father who struggles to provide for his family. The play, set in the 1950s, is part of Wilson's ten-part "Pittsburgh Cycle". The play explores the evolving African-American experience and examines race relations, among other themes. Jones won widespread critical acclaim, earning himself his second Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. Beside the Star Wars sequels, Jones was featured in several other box office hits of the 1980s: the action/fantasy film Conan the Barbarian (1982), the Eddie Murphy comedy Coming to America (1988), and the sports drama/fantasy Field of Dreams (1989) which earned an Academy Award for Best Picture nomination. He also starred in the independent film Matewan (1987), which dramatized the events of the Battle of Matewan, a coal miners' strike in 1920 in Matewan, a small town in the hills of West Virginia. He received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for his performance.

In 1985, Jones lent his bass voice as Pharaoh in the first episode of Hanna-Barbera's The Greatest Adventure: Stories from the Bible. From 1989 to 1992, Jones served as the host of the children's TV series Long Ago and Far Away. Jones appeared in several more successful films during the early-to-mid-1990s, including The Hunt for Red October (1990), Patriot Games (1992), Sneakers (1992), Sommersby (1993), The Sandlot (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and Cry, the Beloved Country (1995). He also lent his distinctive bass voice to the role of Mufasa in the 1994 Disney animated film The Lion King.

Jones also performed voice work for The Simpsons: in the 1990 "Treehouse of Horror" Halloween special and in two other episodes.

Jones played lead characters on television in three series. Gabriel's Fire and a revamped version called Pros and Cons aired on ABC between 1990 and 1992. In both formats of that show, Jones played a former policeman wrongly convicted of murder who, upon his release from prison, becomes a private eye. In 1995, Jones starred in Under One Roof as Neb Langston, a widowed African-American police officer sharing his home in Seattle with his daughter, his married son and children, and Neb's newly adopted son. The show was a mid-season replacement and lasted only six weeks, but earned him another Emmy nomination. He also portrayed Thad Green on "Mathnet", a parody of Dragnet that appeared in the PBS program Square One Television. In 1998, Jones starred in the widely acclaimed syndicated program An American Moment (created by James R. Kirk and Ninth Wave Productions). Jones took over the role filled by Charles Kuralt, upon Kuralt's death.

On July 13, 1993, accompanied by the Morgan State University choir, Jones spoke the U.S. national anthem before the 1993 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Baltimore. In 1996, he recited the classic baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, and on June 1, 2007, he did the same before a Philadelphia Phillies home game. In 1994, he performed the role of "Ebenezer Scrooge" alongside Martin Sheen and Robert MacNeil in a public reading of A Christmas Carol at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, which was broadcast on PBS. Jones also appeared in the 1999 Disney animated film Fantasia 2000, introducing the segment The Carnival of the Animals.

2000–2009: Career honors and other roles

Jones guest-starred in many television shows over the years, including for NBC's Law & Order, and Frasier, ABC's Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, Fox's medical drama House, and CBS' The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men.

In 2002, Jones received Kennedy Center Honors at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Also at the ceremony were fellow honorees Paul Simon, Elizabeth Taylor, and Chita Rivera. President George W. Bush joked, "People say that the voice of the president is the most easily recognized voice in America. Well, I'm not going to make that claim in the presence of James Earl Jones." Those there to honor Jones included Sidney Poitier, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, and Courtney B. Vance.

He also voiced the CNN tagline, "This is CNN", as a part of the network's tenth anniversary in 1990. As of 2024, the tagline is still used by CNN. He lent his voice to the opening for NBC's coverage of the 2000 and 2004 Summer Olympics. Although uncredited, Jones's voice is possibly heard as Darth Vader at the conclusion of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005). When specifically asked whether he had supplied the voice, possibly from a previous recording, Jones told Newsday: "You'd have to ask Lucas about that. I don't know."

On April 7, 2005, Jones and Leslie Uggams headed the cast in an African-American Broadway revival version of On Golden Pond, directed by Leonard Foglia and produced by Jeffrey Finn. In February 2008, he starred on Broadway as Big Daddy in a limited-run, all-African-American production of Tennessee Williams' Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, directed by Debbie Allen and staged at the Broadhurst Theatre. In November 2009, James reprised the role of Big Daddy in Cat On A Hot Tin Roof at the Novello Theatre in London's West End. That production also starred Sanaa Lathan as Maggie, Phylicia Rashad as Big Mamma, and Adrian Lester as Brick.

In 2009, for his work on film and television, Jones was presented with the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award by Forest Whitaker.

2010–2022: Return to Broadway and final roles

In October 2010, Jones returned to the Broadway stage in Alfred Uhry's Driving Miss Daisy, along with Vanessa Redgrave at the Golden Theatre. In November 2011, Jones starred in Driving Miss Daisy in London's West End, and on November 12 received an honorary Oscar in front of the audience at the Wyndham's Theatre, which was presented to him by Ben Kingsley. In March 2012, Jones played the role of President Art Hockstader in Gore Vidal's The Best Man on Broadway at the Schoenfeld Theatre: he was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play. The play also starred Angela Lansbury, John Larroquette (as candidate William Russell), Candice Bergen, Eric McCormack (as candidate Senator Joseph Cantwell), Jefferson Mays, Michael McKean, and Kerry Butler, with direction by Michael Wilson.

In 2013, Jones starred opposite Vanessa Redgrave in a production of Much Ado About Nothing directed by Mark Rylance at The Old Vic, London. From February to June 2013, Jones starred alongside Dame Angela Lansbury in an Australian tour of Driving Miss Daisy. In 2014, Jones starred alongside Annaleigh Ashford as Grandpa in the Broadway revival of the George S. Kaufman comedic play You Can't Take It with You at the Longacre Theatre on Broadway. Ashford received a Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play nomination for her performance. On September 23, 2015, Jones opened in a new revival of The Gin Game opposite Cicely Tyson, at the John Golden Theater, where the play had originally premiered (with Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy). The play had a planned limited run of 16 weeks. It closed on January 10, 2016.

In 2013–2014, he appeared with Malcolm McDowell in a series of commercials for Sprint in which the two dramatically recited mundane phone and text-message conversations. In 2015, Jones starred as the Chief Justice Caleb Thorne in the American drama series Agent X with actress Sharon Stone, Jeff Hephner, Jamey Sheridan, and others. The television series was aired by TNT from November 8 to December 27, 2015, running only one season and 10 episodes. Jones officially reprised his voice role of Darth Vader for the character's appearances in the animated TV series Star Wars Rebels and the live-action film Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), as well as for a three-word cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

In 2019, he reprised his voice role of Mufasa for the CGI remake of The Lion King, directed by Jon Favreau, in which he was the only original cast member to do so. According to Favreau, Jones's lines from the original film remained mostly the same. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who voiced Mufasa's evil brother Scar in the remake, said that "the comfort of [Jones reprising his role] is going to be very rewarding in taking [the audience] on this journey again. It's a once-in-a-generation vocal quality." Jones also reprised the role of King Jaffe Joffer in Coming 2 America (2021), the sequel to Coming to America (1988); this was his final screen credit.

In 2022, his voice was used via Respeecher software for Darth Vader in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. During production, Jones signed a deal with Lucasfilm authorizing archival recordings of his voice to be used in the future to artificially generate the voice of Darth Vader. In September 2022, Jones announced that he would retire from the role of voicing Darth Vader with future voice roles for Vader being created by that means.

Personal life and death

Marriages and illness

In 1968, Jones married actress and singer Julienne Marie, whom he met while performing as Othello to her Desdemona in 1964. They divorced in 1972. In 1982, he married actress Cecilia Hart, who played Desdemona to his Othello shortly after they wed, and with whom he had a son. Hart died of complications from ovarian cancer on October 16, 2016, aged 68.

In April 2016, Jones spoke publicly for the first time in nearly 20 years about his long-term health challenge with type 2 diabetes. He was diagnosed in the mid-1990s after his doctor noticed he had fallen asleep while exercising at a gym.

Jones was a devout Roman Catholic, having converted during his time in the military.

Death and tributes

Jones died at his home in Pawling, New York, on September 9, 2024, at the age of 93 from diabetes. He died surrounded by his family. In a statement, CNN said that Jones "was the voice of CNN and our brand for many decades, uniquely conveying through speech instant authority, grace, and decorum. That remarkable voice is just one of many things the world will miss about James." Jones's alma mater, the University of Michigan, paid tribute to him by posting a "We Are Michigan" video narrated by Jones on Twitter. The NAACP, SAG-AFTRA, The Public Theater, and MLB also paid tribute to Jones. The Empire State Building in New York City was lit up to resemble Darth Vader. Vice President Kamala Harris praised Jones, writing that "[He] used his voice to challenge America's thinking on civil rights and race, and he continued to move our nation forward through his art." Former President Bill Clinton released a statement praising Jones as "a brilliant actor who brought to life some of the most iconic characters ever". Actor Denzel Washington paid tribute to Jones calling him his "hero" adding, "I wasn't going to be as big as him. I wanted to sound like him. He was everything to me as a budding actor. He was who I wanted to be." Numerous members of the entertainment industry also paid tribute to Jones including George Lucas, Mark Hamill, Kevin Costner, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barry Jenkins, Spike Lee, Viola Davis, Whoopi Goldberg, Courtney B. Vance, and Alec Baldwin.

Reception and legacy

Following his death, The New York Times described Jones's career as "a prodigious body of work" and called him "one of America's most versatile actors in a stage, film and television career". Academy Award–winning actress Viola Davis said that Jones's career reflected "black excellence".

Jones was recognized as a groundbreaker and pioneer for African Americans for his significant roles on stage and television. Critic Clive Barnes said that Jones's theater roles were "like a black avenging angel ... Even when corrupted by misery, his presence has an almost moral force to it, and his voice rasps out an agony nearly too personally painful in its nakedness". In 2011, Academy Award-nominated actor Alec Baldwin called Jones "one of the greatest actors in American history". In 2022, the Cort Theatre was renamed after James Earl Jones, becoming the second Broadway venue named after a Black theatrical artist, the first being the August Wilson Theatre named after the playwright August Wilson. The Cort Theatre was the same stage on which Jones made his Broadway debut in 1958.

On May 16, 2025, the online video game Fortnite Battle Royale added a Darth Vader non-playable character to the game, which players can converse with via generative AI modeled after Jones' voice. Fortnite developer Llama Productions LLC (which is wholly owned by Epic Games) received permission from Jones' estate to use his voice in the game and closely collaborated with his family to develop the AI voice model. SAG-AFTRA filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB against Llama Productions in response.

Acting credits and accolades

Main article: James Earl Jones on screen and stage, List of awards and nominations received by James Earl Jones

Jones had an extensive career in film, television, and theater. He started out in film by appearing in the 1964 political satire film Dr. Strangelove as Lt. Lothar Zogg. He then went on to star in the 1970 film The Great White Hope as Jack Jefferson, a role he first played at Washington's Arena Stage in the world premier of Howard Sackler's play of the same name.

On television, he received two Primetime Emmy Awards for his roles in thriller film Heat Wave (1990) and the crime series Gabriel's Fire (1991). He also acted in Roots (1977), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Picket Fences (1994), and Homicide: Life on the Street (1997). Jones's television work includes playing Woodrow Paris in the series Paris between 1979 and 1980. He voiced various characters on the animated series The Simpsons in three separate seasons (1990, 1994, 1998).

Jones's theater work includes numerous Broadway plays, including Sunrise at Campobello (1958–1959), Danton's Death (1965), The Iceman Cometh (1973–1974), Of Mice and Men (1974–1975), Othello (1982), On Golden Pond (2005), Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (2008), and You Can't Take It with You (2014–2015).

Jones received two Primetime Emmy Awards, two Tony Awards, and a Grammy Award. He also was the recipient of a Golden Globe Award and the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. In 2011, he received an Academy Honorary Award. As such, he has been described as being an EGOT, having won all four Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony awards. There is debate as to if the definition of EGOT extends to non-competitive winners such as Jones, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, and Harry Belafonte.

In 1985, Jones was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame He was also the 1987 First recipient of the National Association for Hearing and Speech Action's Annie Glenn Award. In 1991, he received the Common Wealth Award for Outstanding Achievement in the Dramatic Arts. In 1992, he was awarded the National Medal of Arts by George H. W. Bush. Also in 1996, he was given the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member George Lucas. In 2002, he was the featured Martin Luther King Day speaker for Lauderhill, Florida. In 2011, he received the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center Monte Cristo Award Recipient. He also received an Honorary Academy Award on November 12, 2011. He was the 2012 Marian Anderson Award Recipient. Jones won the 2014 Voice Icon Award sponsored by Society of Voice Arts and Sciences at the Museum of the Moving Image. In 2017, he received an Honorary Doctor of Arts from Harvard University. He was honored with a Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2017. In 2019, he was honored as a Disney Legend. In March 2022, Broadway's Cort Theatre was renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre in his honor.

References

Bibliography

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94. Scott, Lyvie. (June 1, 2022). "Who Is Voicing Darth Vader In Obi-Wan Kenobi? It's Complicated".
95. Breznican, Anthony. (September 23, 2022). "Darth Vader's Voice Emanated From War-Torn Ukraine".
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108. University of Michigan Football. "Honoring the greatest voice in acting history and a Michigan icon. Rest in peace, James Earl Jones".
109. University of Michigan. "A Michigan icon. Rest in peace, James Earl Jones.".
110. (September 9, 2024). "Hollywood Remembers James Earl Jones: "There Will Never Be Another Combination Of His Graces"".
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112. Harris, Kamala. "James Earl Jones was a boy with a stutter who grew into the man who voiced some of the most notable characters in our culture.".
113. Clinton, Bill. "James Earl Jones was a brilliant actor who brought to life some of the most iconic characters ever.".
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120. (September 9, 2024). "Viola Davis Remembers James Earl Jones' Legacy of 'Black Excellence' (Exclusive)". ET Online.
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122. (September 13, 2022). "Broadway's Cort Theatre is officially renamed the James Earl Jones Theatre".
123. (September 23, 2022). "Video of the Week: James Earl Jones on the Dedication of Theater Named for Him".
124. (May 16, 2025). "James Earl Jones' Family, Disney, and Epic Games Bring Darth Vader's Iconic Voice to Fortnite with Interactive Chat Experience".
125. Parrish, Ash. (May 19, 2025). "SAG-AFTRA files complaint over Fortnite's AI Darth Vader".
126. (September 10, 2024). "James Earl Jones's talents went far, far beyond his magnificent voice". Washington Post.
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131. (August 3, 2011). "Why James Earl Jones' honorary Oscar doesn't get him an EGOT". Los Angeles Times.
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138. (2004). "2004 Summit Highlights Photo".
139. (January 19, 2003). "James Earl Jones vs. James Earl Ray Mix-Up".
140. Adam Hetrick, [https://www.playbill.com/news/article/james-earl-jones-receives-oneill-centers-monte-cristo-award-may-9-176916 "James Earl Jones Receives O'Neill Center's Monte Cristo Award May 9"] {{Webarchive. link. (January 20, 2015 , ''Playbill'', May 9, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2011.)
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143. [https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/05/harvard-awards-10-honorary-degrees-at-366th-commencement/ "Harvard awards 10 honorary degrees at 366th Commencement"] {{Webarchive. link. (May 25, 2017 , ''Harvard Gazette'', May 25, 2017. Retrieved May 30, 2017.)
144. (April 27, 2017). "Tony Awards: James Earl Jones to Receive Lifetime Achievement Honor".
145. (May 16, 2019). "Robert Downey Jr. and James Earl Jones highlight the list of Disney Legends to be honored at D23 Expo 2019". Inside the Magic.
146. Paulson, Michael. (March 2, 2022). "Broadway's Cort Theater Will Have a New Name: James Earl Jones". The New York Times.
147. (March 2, 2022). "James Earl Jones honored in renaming of historic N.Y. Broadway theater".