Of course, Jones’ star shot to international fame for his voice role as Darth Vader in the original Star Wars in 1977, and in the subsequent sequels The Empire Strikes Back (1983) and Return of the Jedi (1983). Some of his more notable movie roles have been in The Man, Claudine, Conan the Barbarian, Field of Dreams, The Hunt for Red October, and The Sandlot.


The story of James Earl Jones exemplifies that of a person who stutters who discovers that creative expression guides him to break free of his stuttering bonds. In 1974 he was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “Just discovering the joy of communicating set it up for me, I think. In a very personal way, once I found out I could communicate again, it became a very important thing for me, like making up for lost time, making up for the years I didn’t speak.”


James Earl Jones teamed up with co-author Penelope Niven to publish a 1993 memoir, Voices and Silences, in which he vigorously addressed his stuttering at length.


In the foreword, Penelope Niven wrote of Jones, “Because he is a stutterer, he shapes written language uniquely and works with even more care than most writers do. His hands linger over every sentence. His eyes and ears are attuned to the resonance of words. And his years of silence have forged a sensitive listener and observer.”


"A stutterer ends up with a greater need to express himself, or perhaps a greater awareness of how you would like to say something. The desire to speak builds and builds until it becomes part of your energy, your life force. "


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