Would you believe that the booming, authoritative voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones, was mute as a child? Not only was he mute as a child, but he was that way for eight years, which is a significant amount of time. So this leaves the obvious question beckoning. What caused James Earl Jones to be mute?
Very few actors have a voice that can match that of James Earl Jones. Among his many credits is Darth Vader in Star Wars, and Mufasa in the Lion King. But as we have said. It may never have been.
Born in 1931 in Mississippi, he is the son of Robert Earl Jones who was a boxer, actor, and chauffeur, and Ruth Jones who was a teacher and a maid. He is of Native American, Irish, and African descent. Not long after his birth his father, Robert left. This left his mother with almost no other option but to send the young James to his grandmother to be raised. Unfortunately the move to his grandmother wasn’t a smooth one. For James, it proved to be emotionally stressful.
Why was the voice of Darth Vader, James Earl Jones mute?
When he moved to his grandparents farm at the age of five he developed a sever stutter. This stutter practically left James Earl Jones mute for a period of eight years. When you think about it, the period of time that this affected him was a huge chunk of his childhood, and a fairly important part of it too. But thankfully things were to take a turn when he went to high school.
At the age of 13, a teacher at his high school took an interest in him and his stutter. After exposing him to some poetry, she discovered that it helped him open up and overcome his disability.
This one teachers interest in James Earl Jones being mute changed his life in an amazing way. He went onto complete school, and excelled in medicine. He soon discovered that medicine was not for him, and decided to turn his hand to acting. At the same time that he was in university, he joined the Reserve Officer Training Program and he was commissioned as an officer.
