James Earl Jones

The voice is silenced, long live the voice. James Earl Jones passed away a couple days ago; the actor best known for his impressively deep voice was also a fine performer, distinguishing himself on stage in Shakespeare's Othello and King Lear. His two best known roles, though, were solely voice roles; he provided the voice for the patriarch Mufasa in the Lion King movies and he was the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars films.

He's seen as irreplaceable as the voice of Darth Vader, so much so they convinced him to sign away the rights to his voice so that it could be used for a digitally created performance in one of the Disney+ Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi. In theory, I'm not against the idea since Vader's voice is supposed to be an electronic distortion anyway, but the performance was noticeably inferior to Jones' work on Rogue One and Rebels. God, it's really too bad Rebels sucked.

All the same, if his voice crops up on the second season of Andor, I'm not likely to complain. It's important that he consented to it, though, and I hope that sets a precedent that continues to be honoured.

If I had to pick a best moment from his work in the Star Wars franchise, it would be in The Empire Strikes Back, of course. He was adept at conveying a sense that he was fuelled by constant rage and yet there's a very subtle vulnerability in his need to connect with Luke. Jones layered these ideas well and the scenes play equally well if you've seen the prequels or you haven't. He was great.