College Selects 2002 Commencement Speaker

James Earl Jones, the distinguished actor with the distinctive voice, will lend that voice to Ithaca College’s graduation proceedings next spring. Jones has accepted an offer to serve as the College’s Commencement speaker on May 18, 2002.

"Few actors have had as impressive a career as James Earl Jones," says Ithaca College president Peggy R. Williams. "His stage, film, and television roles have rightfully earned him acclaim, and I am delighted that he has agreed to share his talents with our graduating seniors and their guests."

With two Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards, and an Oscar nomination among his honors, Jones may still be best known for the roles in which he isn’t even seen. You can hear him in the Star Wars films as Darth Vader ("I am your father.") and in The Lion King as Mufasa ("Look, Simba. Everything the light touches is our kingdom."); on a cable news channel as the announcer ("This . . . is CNN."); and even on the telephone as the "voice" of Verizon Communications ("Welcome to Verizon local and national 411.").

"The senior cabinet is very excited about the 2002 Commencement speaker," says senior class president Andrew Sachs ’02. "We feel that James Earl Jones will bring great enthusiasm and integrity to the 2002 graduation."

Jones began his professional acting career after earning a drama degree from the University of Michigan. His long association with the New York Shakespeare Festival carried him from Hamlet to King Lear, and he already had three Obie awards for his off-Broadway work when he landed the role of heavyweight boxing champion Jack Johnson in Broadway’s The Great White Hope. That performance earned him a Tony Award, and his appearance in the film version two years later brought him an Academy Award nomination. He would later earn his second best-actor Tony for Fences.

From his film debut in the classic Dr. Strangelove, Jones has memorably played characters in such disparate movies as Field of Dreams, Patriot Games, Cry, the Beloved Country, and Coming to America. His television credits have been just as varied, with guest spots on shows ranging from Frasier to Touched by an Angel. He played the title characters in the television series Paris and Gabriel’s Fire --- for the latter of which he won an Emmy as outstanding lead actor in a drama --- and portrayed Alex Haley in Roots: The Next Generation. He published his autobiography, James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences, in 1997.

Jones has been awarded the National Medal of Arts and the NAACP Hall of Fame Image Award, as well as honorary degrees from Yale, Princeton, and the University of Michigan.