Remembering The Great James Earl Jones

James Earl Jones, an iconic performer, who, back when, performed and trained to play one in tribute to Jack Johnson, a man who was overwhelmed not just by racial prejudice, but also by laws supporting it, and gained fame, even universal acceptance his father Robert Jones (loved him as “Luther Coleman” in the great film, “The Sting”) never could (Jim Croce in “I’ve Got A Name” ode) never could, died days back at age 93.

Mr. Jones was a tremendous presence and that is what many even most will cite today.

My greatest appreciation for the incredibly talented and achieving Mr. Jones, was his work in the above referenced “The Great White Hope,” as Johnson, in “Fences,” which as was the case with “The Great White Hope,” earned Jones a Tony Award and then as a J.D. Salinger type who then goes “oppo”/public and talks of baseball’s great meaning to so many (brilliantly enunciating BASEball emphasizing its first syllable and again its meaning, in “Field of Dreams.”

Jones and his great career made more impressive by his overcoming a stuttering tendency, sprouting incredible eloquence surely would make his dad Robert proud as James Earl Jones, in so many ways and with such grace and eloquence, lived the life he could not.

James Earl Jones, I believe in “Field of Dreams,” pictured above.