Other names Earl Jones Role Actor Name Robert Jones | Years active 1939–1993 Occupation Actor | |
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Children James Earl Jones, Matthew Earl Jones Ex-spouse Ruth Connolly, Jumelle P. Jones, Ruth Williams Siblings Mary Jones, Brian Jones, John Earl Jones Movies The Sting, Sleepaway Camp, Trading Places, One Potato - Two Potato, Witness Similar People James Earl Jones, Cecilia Hart, David S Ward, George Roy Hill, Oscar Micheaux | ||
Matthew Earl Jones on The Urban Roundtable
ROBERT EARL JONES TRIBUTE
Robert Earl Jones (February 3, 1910 – September 7, 2006), sometimes credited as Earl Jones, was an American actor and prizefighter. One of the first prominent African-American 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. In New York in the 1930s Jones worked with young people on the Works Progress Administration, the largest New Deal agency, through which he met Langston Hughes, who cast him in his 1938 play, Don't You Want to Be Free?. 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). Jones was the father of actor James Earl Jones.
Contents
- Matthew Earl Jones on The Urban Roundtable
- ROBERT EARL JONES TRIBUTE
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- Filmography
- References
Early life
Jones was born in Mississippi; the specific location is unclear as some sources indicate Senatobia, while others suggest nearby Coldwater. A son of Robert and Elnora Jones, Robert Earl Jones left school at an early age to become a sharecropper, and later became a prizefighter before making his way (via Chicago) to New York City and a career on stage and in film. Under the name "Battling Bill Stovall", he was a sparring partner of Joe Louis.
Career
Jones appeared in more than twenty films, including The Cotton Club (1984) and The Sting (1973). His film career started with the leading role of a detective in the 1939 race film Lying Lips. Jones acted mostly in crime movies and dramas after that, with such highlights as Wild River and One Potato, Two Potato. Jones appeared in several other noted films over the span of his career: Witness, Trading Places, and The Cotton Club. Jones appeared in the Oscar-winning 1973 film The Sting, as Luther Coleman, an aging grifter whose con is requited with murder leading to "the sting".
Toward the end of his life, Jones was noted for his stage portrayal of Creon in a 1988 musical version of the Oedipus legend, The Gospel at Colonus. He also made appearances in the long-running TV shows Lou Grant and Kojak. His last film was in Rain Without Thunder (1993). One of his last stage roles was in a 1991 production of Mule Bone by Hughes and another figure from the Harlem renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston. Although blacklisted by the House Un-American Activities Committee in the 1950s, he was ultimately honored with a lifetime achievement award by the U.S. National Black Theatre Festival.
Personal life
Jones was married three times. As a young man, Jones married Ruth Connolly in 1929 which produced a son, James Earl Jones. Jones and Connolly separated before James was born in 1931. The couple divorced in 1933, and Jones did not come to know his son until the mid–1950s. Jones married two other times, to Jumelle Jones from 1938–1950 and Ruth Williams from 1960 until her death in 1981. Jones fathered one other child in addition to James Earl. Jones died September 7, 2006 in Englewood, New Jersey from natural causes at age 96.