How James Earl Jones Worked Through a Stutter and Several 'Mute Years' Thanks to a Wise Teacher

Mar. 15, 2025

James Earl Jones on July 25, 1978.Photo:Hilaria McCarthy/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty

Hilaria McCarthy/Daily Express/Hulton Archive/Getty

James Earl Jonesis known as one of Hollywood’siconic voice actorsand aformidable stage presence on Broadway. The man behind the voice of Darth Vader, however, lived with a stutter and overcame several “mute years” as a kid.

Jonesdied at age 93on Sept. 9, at his home in Dutchess County in New York.

Back in 1996, the actor shared details of his upbringing in Mississippi and Michigan, plus how his family’s move when he was a boy seemed to impact a stutter that left him mostly nonverbal until he entered high school. This reflection came as the star wasinterviewedfor his induction into theAmerican Academy of Achievement.

“It wasn’t that I stopped talking; it was that I resolved that talking was too difficult,” Jones said in that interview, noting that traveling north with his grandparents, who raised him, and away from Mississippi was a significant trauma for him.

“By the time I got to Michigan, I was a stutterer. I couldn’t talk,” he recalled. “So my first year of school was my first mute year. And then those mute years continued until I got to high school.”

James Earl Jones on Dec. 2, 1965.CBS via Getty

CBS via Getty

“I resigned to it as a kid,” he said. “I guess I was then about 10 years old when I was approaching serious school work, where you really had to report what you knew. The teacher accepted that I could do all my reporting with a pencil; I didn’t have to speak oral examinations, I did all mine written. And I became just a nonverbal person. I became a writer.”

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James Earl Jones on Jan. 17, 2011.Astrid Stawiarz/Getty

Astrid Stawiarz/Getty

Though Jones recalled at that time that he “enjoyed being quiet, as long as people respected and didn’t bother and didn’t probe me,” he credited a high school English teacher named Donald Crouch with helping him learn to communicate verbally again after he discovered Jones' fascination with poetry.

James Earl Jones on Sept. 16, 2014.Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post/Getty

Jesse Dittmar for The Washington Post/Getty

As Jones also recalled in a 2008 interview withNWA World Traveler, Crouch eventually used Jones' own poetry to challenge the then-student into dictating his words in front of the classroom.

“He said, ‘This is a good poem, it’s so good I don’t think you wrote it. To prove you wrote it, get up in front of the class and say it out loud,’ " Jones recalled during his Academy of Achievement interview. “I don’t know whether he concocted that challenge or not, but he really meant it. And I got up and I said it and didn’t stutter. Nice surprise.”

source: people.com