The Best James Earl Jones Movies

Darth Vader had an EGOT. It’s hard to fathom a single man providing the unmistakable voice for one of pop culture’s best villains (and countless action figures) and being exceptional across so many performance styles that he acquired an Oscar, Emmy, Grammy and Tony. But James Earl Jones could do it all. Outside his booming bass, Jones’ talents brought Shakespeare and August Wilson to life, gave kings of all species a little extra authority and waxed poetic about baseball. From his earliest on-screen days in Dr. Strangelove to his wackier genre turns in movies like Conan the Barbarian, Jones offered the same heat he brought to his most critically acclaimed roles (in the likes of Claudine and Matewan). He bossed around multiple Jacks Ryan and was the first guest star on Sesame Street. Seriously, he was everywhere. Jones’ myriad abilities placed him at the very top of American actors, so let’s celebrate his career by looking back at his best movies.

Here are the 10 best James Earl Jones movies:

1. Claudine

Year: 1974
Director: John Berry
Stars: James Earl Jones, Diahann Carroll, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
Rating: PG

While the Blaxploitation era mostly consisted of badass brothas and sistas whooping the asses of figures—gangsters, drug dealers, the MAN!—who were trying to keep the Black community down, Claudine was a complete 180 from all those righteous-but-over-the-top spectacles. Diahann Carroll stars as the title character, a mother of six kids—the result of two marriages and two “almost marriages”—who supports these ragamuffins by housekeeping for a white couple and getting welfare. Despite being middle-aged and consistently running ragged, Carroll’s Claudine still catches the eye of Rupert P. Marshall (James Earl Jones), a smooth-talking garbageman who takes her to his place for a relaxing date—which mostly consists of a bubble bath, a bucket of fried chicken and a roll in the hay. The first half of the movie has Claudine trying to maintain a no-strings-attached “project” with Marshall (“Roop” to his peoples), while also raising her kids and keeping “Mr. Welfare” from finding out she’s been cheating on him. (Whenever the lily-white welfare lady comes, she and the kids have to hide anything that looks remotely new.) Eventually, Claudine catches feelings for the trash man, especially when he starts becoming a father figure to the little ones. For a movie written and directed by white folk (as usually was the way during the Blaxploitation years), Claudine is surprisingly spot-on in its portrayal of living in lower-income America. Blacklisted director John Berry stepped in when African-American stage/screen vet Ossie Davis bowed out of directing. Berry took married screenwriters Lester and Tina Pine’s script and crafted a movie that speaks more about the Black experience than any Blaxploitation movie did at the time. Carroll has wonderful chemistry with Jones, who gives his most suave, romantic performance. Even when he starts getting pressure from the tax man to pay more for his out-of-state kids, the man who voiced Darth Vader, Mufasa and other powerful mofos still does outstanding work playing that rarest of on-screen Black archetypes: A Black man who actually wants to be there for his girl and her kids. Claudine grossed $6 million and became one of those beloved hood classics that inspired other Black artists to make different, more positive, more honest stories about Black people.–Craig D. Lindsey

2. Coming to America

Year: 1988
Director: John Landis
Stars: Eddie Murphy, Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, John Amos, Madge Sinclair, Shari Headley.
Rating: R

If this movie consisted of the barbershop scenes inside of My-T-Sharp and nothing else, it would still be one of the greatest comedies of all time. Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall teamed up with director John Landis (Blues Brothers) and created a classic. As Prince Akeem from the fictional African country of Zamunda, Murphy travels to the great United States of America to evade his arranged marriage and find true love (in Queens, obviously). Akeem encounters all of the wonders of Black America, but the satirical twist is genius—the Black preacher (via Hall as the incomparable Reverend Brown), the club scene, the barbershop, hip-hop culture, and Soul Glo—it’s all here. Cameos from actors like Cuba Gooding Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Louie Anderson, and Murphy’s Trading Places co-stars Don Ameche and Ralph Bellamy take the Coming to America experience to a whole new level. An excellent comedy and a great tribute to New York City, this story of a prince just looking to be loved is a must-see for everyone—including those of us who’ve already seen it. —Shannon Houston

3. Dr. Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Year: 1964
Director: Stanley Kubrick
Stars: Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens
Rating: PG

While attempting to adapt Peter George’s novel Red Alert for the big screen, director Stanley Kubrick found that he kept needing to cut out certain real-life details about the emergency nuclear bomb procedures because they were simply too absurd to work in a serious drama. Deciding to rewrite the project as a dark comedy, he recruited renowned satirist Terry Southern to help pen the script. From there, it’s all history. To this day, Peter Sellers’ three very different (and very funny) performances remain a feat by which few actors have matched. Moreover, the image of Slim Pickens riding the bomb to its destination as well as the final montage of destruction set to the wistful “We’ll Meet Again” are the stuff of movie legend. Worldwide Armageddon has never been so hilarious.—Mark Rozeman

4. Field of Dreams

Year: 1989
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Stars: Kevin Costner, Amy Madigan, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster
Rating: PG

There’s a little fantasy in most sports dramas, overcoming impossible obstacles and peaking at the magical moment to carry the day. But Field of Dreams, adapted from W.P. Kinsella’s novel Shoeless Joe, isn’t a story of athletic prowess or winning the day. It’s a story of believing in the magic of sports. It’s a story of fathers and sons, of the hard work of play, of disconnecting from the worries of the real world to play a game of catch. In other words, it’s about baseball, the only sport that can turn an Iowa cornfield into a little slice of heaven. Of course Kevin Costner and James Earl Jones’ buddy journey to belief is sentimental; America’s pastime is nothing without sentiment. The major leagues may wish that all it took was new state-of-the-art taxpayer-subsidized sports complexes outside of their traditional downtown locales to spike attendance, but in 1989 we all believed. “If you build it, they will come…” —Josh Jackson

5. The Hunt For Red October

Year: 1990
Director: John McTiernan
Stars: Sean Connery, Alec Baldwin, Scott Glenn, James Earl Jones, Sam Neill
Rating: PG

Just because Sean Connery had hung up his Walter PPK for good in 1983 didn’t mean he couldn’t keep the action films coming. For once, he got to play for the other team in The Hunt For Red October as a rogue Soviet submarine captain. It was the first and best adaptation of a Tom Clancy novel with Alec Baldwin playing the now-iconic Jack Ryan. It’s a cat-and-mouse game with both the Russians and the Americans seeking Red October and a thrilling undersea adventure.—Josh Jackson

6. The Lion King

Year: 1994
Directors: Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff
Stars: Matthew Broderick, Jeremy Irons, James Earl Jones, Nathan Lane, Moira Kelly
Rating: G

Animated films often overreach for gravitas and fail miserably. The Lion King takes a mishmash of the stories of Hamlet, Henry IV, and some African folktales—and pulls it off. Simba&#8217 hearing his father’s ghost tell him “You are more than what you have become” resonates as deeply as anything in Shakespeare’s account of Young Hal. Somehow, even Elton John’s drippy soundtrack sounds majestic. This is a film that ennobles and the only version of it you ever need (except maybe the Broadway production).—Michael Dunaway

7. Matewan

Year: 1987
Director: John Sayles
Stars: Chris Cooper, James Earl Jones, Mary McDonnell, Will Oldham, David Strathairn, Kevin Tighe, Gordon Clapp
Rating: PG-13

In an age of blockbusters and CG-enhanced everything, it can be easy to forget how compelling a simple tale well-told can be. Over 30 years after its release—and about the same period of time since I saw it last—the first thing I noticed about Matewan when I returned to it was how hushed it seems. Written and directed by John Sayles, this retelling of the Matewan Massacre—a moment in 1920 when efforts to prevent West Virginia coal miners from forming a union exploded into violence—is in many ways the tale of a long-burning fuse before it consumes the wick entirely and reaches the dynamite. The significant glances and whispered conversations all contribute to the simmering tension. Matewan’s matter-of-fact depiction of life in a non-union “company town” provides a stark history lesson that might seem harshly exaggerated were it not, well, true. But even though the film has its share of moments of high drama, its more populous and more important ones are the quieter exchanges: the moment Joe Kenehan (Chris Cooper) introduces himself to Elma Radnor (Mary McDonnell) with a cover story that she sees right through; the careful weighing of options by the Italians, or of the African-American workers led by Few Clothes (James Earl Jones); or the unexpected yet resolute defiance of Sheriff Hatfield (David Strathairn) and the Mayor Testerman (Josh Mostel). The film’s cast, uniformly excellent, will likely trigger more than a few “Wait, I know that actor!” moments of recognition—it’s Cooper’s film debut, boasts a Jones in his Field of Dreams-era prime and McDonnell before Dances with Wolves or Battlestar Galactica. It also features scene-chewing villainy from Kevin Tighe and Gordon Clapp, and a less chewy but just as dastardly turn from Bob Gunton.—Michael Burgin

8. Sneakers

Year: 1992
Director: Phil Alden Robinson
Stars: Robert Redford, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Kingsley, Mary McDonnell, River Phoenix, Sidney Poitier, David Strathairn
Rating: PG-13

A barely post-Cold War conspiracy propels this first-rate heist movie, elevated by a superior ensemble that includes Robert Redford, Sidney Poitier, Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn, Ben Kingsley, James Earl Jones and River Phoenix. Redford’s Marty Bishop leads a crack team of blacklisted hackers-turned-U.S. government-enlisted spooks as they attempt to swipe “the” code-breaking device from Soviet baddies. The technology looks charmingly antiquated and the caper clichés are plentiful, but no matter. There’s not a wasted moment, or actor, here—given the talent assembled, that’s a triumph: Dan Aykroyd, David Strathairn and River Phoenix toss droll one-liners like a game of catch, while Ben Kingsley and Eddie Jones keep the underlying drama taut. At its heart is a pitch-perfect Robert Redford, whose unforced rapport with Sidney Poitier showcases two masters at their prime. Utterly smart, sophisticated mischief.—Amanda Schurr

9. Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Year: 1977
Directors: George Lucas
Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher, Alec Guinness
Rating: PG

Before Star Wars, science fiction inhabited a vastly different cinematic landscape. Outside of a few films like John Carpenter’s Darkstar, these imagined realities tended to be pristine, shiny and generally fantastical. The Star Wars universe, on the other hand, dropped audiences into an already ongoing story, in a setting that felt incredibly thought out, organic and lived-in. Things get dirty. The Millennium Falcon is full of dents and dings, as worn as a real-world vehicle would be. It’s may be strange to use the word “realistic,” to describe the visual side of George Lucas’s space opera, but the setting for Star Wars simply felt more authentic than those that came before, and this is an often overlooked element of what made it a cultural phenomenon—along with, of course, its groundbreaking FX work. The people who really had their work cut out for them were filmmakers who wanted to do sci-fi in a post-Star Wars world. The bar of expectations had been raised to exponential heights. —Jim Vorel

10. Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

Year: 1980
Director: Irvin Kershner
Stars: Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher
Rating: PG

The Empire Strikes Back is Exhibit A in the category of sequels that surpass the original, taking the wondrous world we were granted in A New Hope and deepening, expanding its purview in every direction. It gives flesh to the idea of the “Rebel Alliance,” showing us how this ragtag band of freedom fighters operates while slowly winning the ideological battle and drawing more support to their cause. Every character undergoes positive growth: Leia (Carrie Fisher) moves from “princess” figurehead to military commander and tireless organizer of a resistance; Han (Harrison Ford) has become a leader of men, completing the transition he began when returning to help destroy the Death Star in A lion New Hope; and Luke (Mark Hamill) finally starts down the path to becoming a Jedi in earnest. His Dagobah scenes with Yoda are heavy with omens and portent; never in the series do the arcane mysteries of the Force feel as compelling as they do while Luke levitates rocks and digests philosophy. The mysticism and wonder of Star Wars are at their zenith in Empire. Elsewhere, the series’ space-piloting scenes have their most goosebump-raising moment when the Falcon dodges asteroids and T.I.E. Fighters. The petty squabbles of the Imperial Navy and its never-ending parade of dead officers give us a glimpse into the structure of the enemy. A colorful array of bounty hunters is assembled. A classic romance blossoms. All builds to what is perhaps the biggest “oh my god!” reveal in cinema history, completely redefining the audience’s perception of all the events that led up to it. It’s hard to imagine that Empire will ever be toppled as the greatest Star Wars film of all time, but if it somehow is, that will indeed be a momentous disturbance in the Force. —Jim Vorel