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Robert Earl Jones

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Robert Earl Jones
Jones in 1938
Born(1910-02-03)February 3, 1910
Tate County, Mississippi, U.S.
DiedSeptember 7, 2006(2006-09-07) (aged 96)
Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Other namesEarl Jones
Occupations
  • Actor
  • boxer
Years active1938–1993
Spouses
Ruth Connolly
​
​
(m. 1929; div. 1934)​
Jumelle Jones
​
​
(m. 1938; div. 1950)​
Ruth Williams
​
​
(m. 1960; died 1981)​
Children2, including James Earl Jones

Robert Earl Jones (February 3, 1910 – September 7, 2006),[1] sometimes credited as Earl Jones, was an American actor and professional boxer. One of the first prominent Black film stars, Jones was a living link with the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, having worked with Langston Hughes early in his career.

Jones was best known for his leading roles in films such as Lying Lips (1939) and later in his career for supporting roles in films such as The Sting (1973), Trading Places (1983), The Cotton Club (1984), and Witness (1985). He was the father of actor James Earl Jones.

Biography

Early life

Jones was born in northwestern Mississippi; the specific location is unclear as some sources indicate Senatobia,[1] while others suggest nearby Coldwater.[2] A son of Robert and Elnora Jones, Robert Earl Jones left school at an early age to work as a sharecropper to help his family. He later became a prizefighter. Under the name "Battling Bill Stovall", he was a sparring partner of Joe Louis.[3]

Career

Jones became interested in theater after he moved to Chicago, as one of the thousands leaving the South in the Great Migration. He moved on to New York by the 1930s. He worked with young people in the Works Progress Administration, the largest New Deal agency, through which he met Langston Hughes, a young poet and playwright. Hughes cast him in his 1938 play, Don't You Want to Be Free?.[4][1]

Jones also entered the film business, appearing in more than twenty films. His film career started with the leading role of a detective in the 1939 race film Lying Lips, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux, and Jones made his next screen appearance in Micheaux's The Notorious Elinor Lee (1940).[5] Jones acted mostly in crime movies and dramas after that, with such highlights as Wild River (1960) and One Potato, Two Potato (1964). In the Oscar-winning 1973 film The Sting, he played Luther Coleman, an aging grifter whose con is requited with murder leading to the eponymous "sting". In the later 20th century, Jones appeared in several other noted films: Trading Places (1983) and Witness (1985).[6]

Toward the end of his life, Jones was noted for his stage portrayal of Creon in The Gospel at Colonus (1988), a black musical version of the Oedipus legend. He also appeared in episodes of the long-running TV shows Lou Grant and Kojak. One of his last stage roles was in a 1991 Broadway production of Mule Bone by Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston, another important writer of the Harlem Renaissance.[5] His last film was Rain Without Thunder (1993).[6]

Although blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s due to involvement with leftist groups, Jones was ultimately honored with a lifetime achievement award by the U.S. National Black Theatre Festival.[5]

Personal life

Jones was married three times. As a young man, he married Ruth Connolly (died 1986) in 1929; they had a son, James Earl Jones. Jones and Connolly separated before James was born in 1931, and the couple divorced in 1933.[7] Jones did not come to know his son until the mid-1950s. Jones married two other times, to Jumelle Jones from 1938 to 1950, and Ruth Williams from 1960 until her death in 1981. He fathered a second son, Matthew Earl Jones.[8][9] Jones died on September 7, 2006, in Englewood, New Jersey, from natural causes at age 96.[3]

Work

Theatre

Year Title Role Venue
1945 The Hasty Heart Blossom Hudson Theatre, Broadway
1945 Strange Fruit Henry McIntosh NY theater production
1948 Volpone Commendatori City Center
1948 Set My People Free Ned Bennett Hudson Theatre, Broadway
1949 Caesar and Cleopatra Nubian Slave National Theatre, Broadway
1952 Fancy Meeting You Again Second Nubian Royale Theatre, Broadway
1956 Mister Johnson Moma Martin Beck Theater, Broadway
1962 Infidel Caesar Soldier Music Box Theater, Broadway
1962 The Moon Besieged Shields Green Lyceum Theatre, Broadway
1968 More Stately Mansions Cato Broadhurst Theatre, Broadway
1975 All God's Chillun Got Wings Street Person Circle in the Square Theatre, Broadway
1975 Death of a Salesman Charley
1977 Unexpected Guests Man Little Theatre, Broadway
1988 The Gospel at Colonus Creon Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, Broadway
1991 Mule Bone Willie Lewis Ethel Barrymore Theatre, Broadway

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1939 Lying Lips Detective Wenzer
1940 The Notorious Elinor Lee Benny Blue
1959 Odds Against Tomorrow Club Employee uncredited
1960 Wild River Sam Johnson uncredited
1960 The Secret of the Purple Reef Tobias
1964 Terror in the City Farmer
1964 One Potato, Two Potato William Richards
1968 Hang 'Em High (posse)
1971 Mississippi Summer Performer
1973 The Sting Luther Coleman
1974 Cockfighter Buford
1977 Proof of the Man Wilshire Hayward
1982 Cold River The Trapper
1982 One Life to Live
1983 Trading Places Attendant
1983 Sleepaway Camp Ben
1984 The Cotton Club Stage Door Joe
1984 Billions for Boris Grandaddy
1985 Witness Custodian
1988 Starlight: A Musical Movie Joe
1990 Maniac Cop 2 Harry
1993 Rain Without Thunder Old Lawyer final film role

Television

Year Title Role Notes
1964 The Defenders Joe Dean Episode: The Brother Killers
1976 Kojak Judge Episode: Where to Go if you Have Nowhere to Go?
1977 The Displaced Person Astor Television movie
1978 Lou Grant Earl Humphrey Episode: Renewal
1979 Jennifer's Journey Reuven Television movie
1980 Oye Ollie Performer Television series
1981 The Sophisticated Gents Big Ralph Joplin 3 episodes
1985 Great Performances Creon Episode: The Gospel at Colonus
1990 True Blue Performer Episode: Blue Monday

References

  1. ^ a b c Stearns, David Patrick (December 1, 2006). "Robert Earl Jones: US actor rooted in the Harlem renaissance". The Guardian. London. Retrieved January 26, 2007.
  2. ^ "Robert Earl Jones profile". Internet Broadway Database. Retrieved January 26, 2007.
  3. ^ a b Fox, Margalit (September 19, 2006). "Robert Earl Jones, 96, Broadway Actor, Dies". The New York Times. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
  4. ^ Peterson, Jr., Bernard L. (1997). The African American Theatre Directory, 1816–1960: A Comprehensive Guide to Early Black Theatre Organizations, Companies, Theatres, and Performing Groups. Greenwood Publishing. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-3132-9537-9.
  5. ^ a b c McLellan, Dennis (September 20, 2006). "Robert Earl Jones, 96; Actor, Father of James Earl Jones". Los Angeles Times.
  6. ^ a b Berry, S. Torriano; Berry, Venise T. (2009). The A to Z of African American Cinema. Scarecrow Press. pp. 188–189. ISBN 978-0-8108-7034-5.
  7. ^ The Michigan Alumnus. 1993. pp. 2–3. {{cite book}}: |website= ignored (help)
  8. ^ McLellan, Dennis (September 24, 2006). "Robert Earl Jones, 96, Veteran Actor". South Florida Sun Sentinel. Los Angeles Times. p. 13B. Retrieved November 9, 2021.
  9. ^ "Matthew Earl Jones Bio". Earl Jones Institute for Film & Television. Retrieved September 8, 2021.[dead link]
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