In her 2021 memoir Just As I Am, actress Cicely Tyson (1924-2021) wrote about working with James Earl Jones. Tyson wrote the book, published by Harper Collins, with Michelle Burford.

Tyson and Jones began their professional relationship in 1961 in the off-Broadway production of The Blacks: A Clown Show, based on Jean Genet’s absurdist play. According to the International Off-Broadway Database, The Blacks ran for 1,408 performances, from 1961 to 1964.

About working with Jones in the play, Tyson wrote he was “painfully shy … reticent enough to make my own bashfulness seem like extroversion.” Backstage, she wrote, Jones “kept to himself.” He “spoke plenty” onstage.

In the fall of 2015, the two actors starred in the Broadway revival of Donald L. (DL) Coburn’s two-person play The Gin Game. The revival ran for 90 performances. It was their first onstage reunion since 1966’s 20-performance production of A Hand Is on the Gate.

Tyson was 90 and Jones 84 when they starred in The Gin Game. I saw these two theater giants in this excellent Broadway revival.

Tyson wrote that “James … was nearly as shy as he’d been years earlier.” She made the interesting observation that Jones “drew his inspiration from silence” or “the kind of quiet that one wouldn’t expect from a man with such a burly baritone.”

The Gin Game is about two elderly friends who, according to Tyson, “shuffle cards and emotions on the front porch of their nursing home.” Tyson and Jones are excellent as seniors playing cards and coming to terms with their life choices, including mistakes, joys, and disappointments.

It is a slow play without music or theatrical special effects. It is about two elderly characters played by two elderly actors. The Gin Game with Tyson and Jones was a small masterpiece.

In his 1993 memoir James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences, he wrote about working with Tyson. Jones wrote the book, published by Simon and Schuster, with Penelope Niven.

In his book, Jones writes about his important role in 1961’s The Blacks, a highly controversial French play that had been a hit in Paris.

When he read his proposed part in the all-Black production, he was less than impressed. He told the producer: “I don’t know how to handle this sort of off-the-wall stuff.” He wrote that he “took a shot of vodka” before he auditioned. He got the part, and the play had a successful run.

James Earl Jones, who died at age 93 on Sept. 9, was a critically acclaimed actor with two Emmy Awards. Earlier in his career, he had some wild small-screen roles. He writes about his roles in several TV programs, including Dr. Kildare, The Defenders, and Tarzan.

Jones played tribal chiefs in two episodes of Tarzan. He writes about one “memorable” episode with the musical group The Supremes cast as African American nuns! The Supremes “appeared clad demurely in habits,” Jones wrote. He “appeared more flagrantly attired in the stereotypical loincloth.”  

Many of the obituaries for Jones mentioned that he overcame stuttering. He writes at length about his speech problems. He had periods of muteness. His experience overcoming his speaking problems is a powerful testament to his determination and courage.

Jones dedicated James Earl Jones: Voices and Silences to his father, Robert Earl Jones, and to “Professor Donald Crouch, father of my resurrected voice.”

Jones had unforgettable stage and film roles. He had awful TV roles. He had a powerhouse voice, resurrected by a determined professor. James Earl Jones, born in Arkabutla, Mississippi, was a superstar.

 

James Patterson is a writer based in the Washington, D.C. area.

 

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